Veröffentlicht
Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 16:45
- Earlier this month, the arts space hosted an event by local association Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, which is affiliated with the BDS movement.
Berlin arts and culture venue Oyoun has had its funding cancelled over claims of antisemitism.
Last Monday, November 20th, Berlin's Culture Committee confirmed it was cutting the Neukölln space's £870,000 (€1 million) annual funding after it hosted an event by local association Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, which is affiliated with the BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) movement.
Held on November 4th, the event was initially organised in the summer to celebrate Jewish Voice's 20th anniversary before being turned into a vigil in response to the October 7th attacks by Hamas and the escalating death toll in Gaza. But the authorities told Oyoun CEO Louna Sbou that the event was too "politically charged" and shouldn't take place. It went ahead regardless.
Speaking to Resident Advisor, Sbou said "it was absolutely necessary for people to come together." They said the event was "packed" with around 300 people, including Jews, Israelis, Palestinians and Germans, to observe the Jewish mourning ritual shiva "and unite through their collective grief." There was also a panel discussion, workshops, traditional Jewish and Yiddish music and an exhibition featuring Palestinian and Israeli artists. "You could feel the energy of the sadness," Sbou added. One TikTok influencer described it as "the most inspirational event of my life."
But hosting the event ultimately led to the funding being pulled. This is "very problematic," Sbou said, because funding for 32 salaried jobs–and projects in Europe, India and Japan–have been contracted until 2025. Sbou said they only discovered the news about the funding last Monday when watching a livestream of the Culture Committee's decision. "It's really hard to grasp–all of us are in shock," they added.
According to Sbou, the withdrawal of the funding was sparked by a "defamatory" statement by Green Party politician Susanna Kahlefeld, who accused Oyoun of antisemitism and called for its funding to be stopped. Sbou said Kahlefeld was served with an injunction last Wednesday after the venue proved her claims to be false. She's since removed her statement.
During last Monday's announcement, Berlin culture minister Joe Chialo said the Department of Culture is "committed" to implementing measures to prevent "all forms of antisemitism [...] When I say against every form, I also mean every hidden form of antisemitism." He said processes to make this "legally secure and sustainable" will impact all German cultural institutions.
Sbou told RA that "this level of censorship and silencing is extremely dangerous." They added: "It takes a level of audacity for Germans to make claims of antisemitism against the Jewish Voice simply because it can't deal with its own antisemitism–outsourcing it instead to marginalised intersectional communities and to leftist, queer Jews."
In 2019, the BDS movement—which, according to its website, "works to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law"—was deemed antisemitic by the German Bundestag in a non-legally binding resolution. But last year, a Bundestag-commissioned report found that applying this "violates freedom of opinion" and is only applicable to a cultural institute if it's a "threat to the legal interests of others." In January 2022, a landmark case saw a federal court in Leipzig label an anti-BDS policy as "unconstitutional."
Before the funding was pulled, more than 12,000 people—including artists such as Ipek Ipekcioglu, Leila Moon and Mobilegirl—signed an open letter supporting Oyoun. The team has also set up a GoFundMe campaign to help finance the legal help required to launch a case and fight the decision to pull the funding.
Open since 2020, Oyoun bills itself as a "BIPOC-run, cosmopolitan, intersectional arts and culture venue, and a home for queer*feminist, migrant and decolonial perspectives." Across six floors, it includes two venues, a media lab and a photographic dark room. Past electronic guests include Byrell The Great, Authentically Plastic and Leila Moon.
RA has contacted Berlin's Department of Culture for a response. We'll report more on this story as it unfolds.
For more on how the latest escalation in Palestine and Israel has impacted the electronic music scene, revisit our Palestine resources article and recent piece on the response to artists showing solidarity with Palestine.
Read Oyoun's Instagram post about the situation.
Correction, November 27th: A previous version of this article said Oyoun's budget was €870,000. It's actually €1 million.
Correction, November 27th: A previous version of this article said the Culture Committee meeting took place on Tuesday 21st. It was actually Monday 20th.
Update, November 27th: This piece was updated with extra context about the November 4th event.
Correction, January 29th: A previous version of this article said the federal court was in Munich. It was actually in Leipzig.
Photo: Anna Wyszomirska