The news and images of Hamas terror and violence in Israel that have been circulating since Saturday deeply shock us at documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH. Thousands of rockets were fired at Israel by terrorists from the Gaza Strip. At the same time, heavily armed fighters have invaded Israel. They have penetrated the homes of civilians, murdered innocent people, and taken dozens of hostages into the Gaza Strip. These acts are barbaric, they are outrageous, they are in no way justifiable.
In a conversation with Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Managing Director of documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH, Andreas Hoffmann, emphasized to President Dr. Josef Schuster and Managing Director Daniel Botmann today, Monday, that documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH condemns the actions of Hamas in the strongest possible terms. He added: “We feel deep sorrow, great empathy, and solidarity with the people of Israel. In view of this horror, unimaginable scenes are playing out on German streets and on social media. Gruesome videos of violence, murder, and desecration of corpses following IS tactics have received thousands of likes on Instagram. According to media reports, open expressions of solidarity with Palestine were held in Berlin in light of these current warlike actions. The fact that two members of the curatorial collective ruangrupa liked a video showing people chanting “viva Palestine” as well as “Palestine will be free” under the headline “Berlin up for Palestine” on this very day is intolerable and unacceptable. documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH distances itself from this in the strongest possible terms. It notes that the likes have since been withdrawn and that those involved acknowledge them as a mistake.
The terrorist events and reactions to them come at a time when documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH is actively seeking to regain the trust of Jews and the general public in view of the anti-Semitic misconduct of last summer. Especially today, October 9, the anniversary of the tragic assassination in Halle, these events serve as a reminder to actively and forcefully stand up against any form of anti-Semitism.
The current circumstances, as well as certain recent statements made by participating artist collectives on the topic of anti-Semitism at documenta fifteen to the magazine monopol, once again show that a discussion or understanding around the anti-Semitism issue at documenta fifteen has not yet proven successful. The symposium organized together with the documenta Institut for November 17 and 18, 2023, is all the more important to us as a key building block towards coming to terms with the incidents of anti-Semitism here in Kassel.