Located in one of the most bustling districts in the Austrian capital, the Museumsquartier (MQ) Vienna is home to a variety of cultural institutions. It describes itself as an “art space, creative space, and living space,” where opportunities for dialogue between international guests and the Viennese public are encouraged.
This eagerness for dialogue, however, does not seem to apply when it comes to Palestinians. A recent event — Human Rights, International Law: Do they Apply to the Anti-Racist Civil Society in Europe? — was meant to be held at the MQ on November 19 of 2022. It was canceled by the space, following a pro-Israel social media campaign, which smeared the inclusion of BDS Austria as being “problematic.” A variety of tweets from proponents of the apartheid regime falsely accused the movement of antisemitism, referring to the adoption of an anti-BDS resolution by Vienna’s city council in 2018.
The discussion was meant to host speakers from the BDS Austria and the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) to talk about the increasing limitations of free speech in Europe, specifically in German-speaking nations. What ultimately resulted, ironically, was a clear case of censorship:
“When I followed up on the recent developments in Europe and especially in Austria, I was very concerned about the silencing of critical voices by, for example, denying activists the right to speak up or to even offer them spaces for their opinions, pushing them also into certain predefined corners.”
Daniel Jungmayer — the event’s organizer and renter of the space at the MQ – explained that the idea behind hosting the discussion was to precisely challenge these forms of silencing. He recounted two of the most recent SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) cases filed by the city’s municipality: one against climate activists protesting the construction of a highway at the Lobau floodplains, and the other against a BDS Austria activist, who was sued for resharing a Facebook post of a “Visit Apartheid” poster with the City of Vienna’s logo on it. The BDS Austria SLAPP case has, since August of last year, made international headlines. It is currently being followed up on by the ELSC.
“Taking all this into consideration, I decided that I wanted to organize an event here in Vienna with the working title: ‘Human Rights and International Law: Do They Apply to the Critical Civil Society in Europe?’ My intention was to invite activists who have faced political pressure and put them together with human rights groups —such as Amnesty Austria and Amnesty International, who recently published a report on Palestine — and bringing in this legal aspect via the ELSC. I chose the Museumsquartier because it’s a very well-known place here and hosts different types of events that are also politically active.”
Jungmayer has not managed to get Amnesty nor the Lobau activists to take part in the discussion.
When asked about the reasons that were given by the MQ to justify the cancellation, Jungmayer explained that the two main arguments were that (1) the title of the event has been changed to replace the word “critical” with “anti-racist,” and that (2) a “polarizing organization” like the BDS Austria was invited.
“They added that if I would have let them know that BDS Austria would be part of this event, they wouldn’t have even let it happen.”
In tweets responding to the allegations, the MQ Vienna explained that the event was booked by a private person, and that “through various mentions on social media, we were made aware that BDS is behind the rental. Therefore, we immediately terminated the rental agreement.”
Layla Katterman, one of the invited speakers at the canceled event, says that such incidents show that there are many different ways that hinder human rights advocacy in Europe.
“What these incidents show is that there are so many different ways that hinder human rights advocacy in Europe,” Katterman adds. “In Austria and Germany, we have the most cases because of the anti-BDS resolution, which is unconstitutional. We’ve seen in Germany mainly how a lot of artists get disinvited [from events] based on some post they made in support of BDS. The state [goes] to extreme lengths to apply that resolution and the ELSC is trying to fight its effects and give legal assistance to activists in order to challenge it. I think what BDS in Vienna is doing is really bringing in evidence and proof [of this phenomenon].”
Katterman has been working alongside the ELSC since October, monitoring the different types of censorship being faced by Palestinian rights advocates. She states that these forms of censorship fall into different types of categories, including (1) refusal or withdrawal of venue or cancellation of event, (2) smear campaigns, (3) violence and intimidation, (4) threat of legal action, (5) suspension from position, and (6) cyber-attacks, along with a few others.
Katterman argues that the MQ’s justifications — although illegitimate — were enough to cancel the event because of the institution’s strategic use of certain “bureaucratic obstacles.”
“These obstacles are usually used by institutions that praise themselves for freedom of expression and inclusivity in order to still be able to deny Palestinians a space within them. Basically, the way they do it is that they will never tell you that you can’t talk about a certain topic, because that’s against their own principles… but they will place administrative procedures in your way, which is what happened with this recent event when it came to changing the event’s title, for example.”
This is not the first time a Palestinian is disinvited from one of the MQ’s premises. Both Jungmayer and Katterman relayed the case of scholar Walaa Alqaisiya, who was meant to give a lecture at the Mumok Kino (located at the MQ) as part of the 2022 Spring Curatorial Program. Alqaisiya was disinvited following a smear campaign initiated by pro-apartheid groups, who denounced her work as antisemitic.
“The main allegation used to justify the repression of Palestinian rights advocacy is antisemitism or [alleged] support of terrorism,” Katterman explains. “Another allegation is a breach of law or policy, which manifests itself in codes of conduct, house rules, and emails, [with statements] saying that this is too political of an event for our institution. A lot of events therefore get shut down, or people are disinvited, without them even being directly involved with BDS. We can’t forget the fact that the two countries that have these anti-BDS resolutions are ones which have a very long history with antisemitism themselves, right?” she notes.
Nicole Schöndorfer — who was to be the moderator of the canceled event — has been repeatedly attacked by student union groups who support the Israeli regime, namely the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (JÖH Wien).
Iman*, a Palestinian student and BDS Austria activist in Vienna, claims that the Palestinian struggle has been isolated, especially among other marginalized groups within the city’s leftist scene. This comes from the unwillingness of many activists to truly be in solidarity with liberation movements.
“To understand Zionism and its effect on solidarity movements in the west, Vienna is a very important place to look at, both historically and today, because it’s one of the oldest hotspots of Zionism. It’s where it arose with Theodor Herzl. Palestine becomes a breaking point because of the losses it would entail for activists to support it. This is basically where I would [mention] this so-called ‘Zionist left’ or ‘Anti-Germans.’ To support Palestine is to be against the Israeli state, which is a symbol for global imperialism today, and an ally to the US and the EU. To be against imperialism is to understand how we in the West benefit from and are complicit in it. This is where a lot of groups are cowardly and choose to stick to their privileges.”
Iman explains that, in a place that refuses to center international solidarity, she isn’t guaranteed respect as a Palestinian Muslim woman. The false misconceptions about religion being oppressive – as well as the general anti-Islamic inclination in Europe – makes it difficult for pro-Palestine activists to exist in spaces that tie “terrorism” to its struggle for liberation.
“As a visible Muslima, the last thing people expect is for me be leftist, or for me to be critical of capitalism. Being pro-Palestinian would mean going against our economic privileges, and also for Austria and Germany to let go of its ‘Palestinians – or pro-Palestinians or whatever – are antisemitic’ narrative. If they didn’t have that, then they would have to invest a lot [of effort] into fighting their own antisemitic history.”
“So, it kind of perfectly plays out together; this allegedly leftist Zionist space and the right-wing parties that have a lot to work on, but instead, they just point fingers at Palestinians.”
While anti-Palestinian hostility has become a topic of discussion within the German-speaking left, specifically in Germany, Austria – a much smaller country bordering it – serves as a radical reflection, with even more stringent anti-Palestinian policies. There is no doubt that the Austrian capital has produced figures essential to the Palestinian question, yet an average passerby would easily overlook the Herzl stairs memorial in its tourist district, right next to the synagogue that has been repeatedly targeted throughout the years.
As Austria recovers from its gruesome history of antisemitism, it’s now finding new ways to deal with it; pinning everything on pro-Palestinian resistance, in a way that is deeply intertwined with Europe’s larger anti-refugee attitude and Islamophobia.
*Iman's last name is omitted for privacy.