As students of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, we are shocked and devastated by the escalating violence that is currently occurring in the Middle East. In the light of the Academy’s past and present practice of censoring and cancelling Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices, its unacceptable statement on the current situation which refuses to acknowledge Palestinian victims, and its self-proclaimed commitment to ‘decolonization’, we feel compelled to act.

On October 7, Hamas launched an attack on Israeli territory. More than 1400 people were killed, more than 4600 were wounded and at least 240 were taken as captives into Gaza. 

Since then Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, explicitly supported by many European countries, including Austria. At the time of writing (3.11.2023), the Israeli army has killed at least 9227 people, more than 3760 of them children, and displaced over 1.4 million people, while thousands are currently missing. 

In light of all these atrocities, the highest priority must be to stop the genocide in Gaza, to prevent further killings on all sides and an immediate ceasefire. 

 

A History of Settler Colonialism

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently commented that ‘the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum’ but in the context of decades of occupation of Palestinian land. This statement does not in any way aim to justify the deaths of civilians, but, on the contrary, urges to address the current events and escalation of violence more profoundly. 

Many international organizations refer to Israel's policies as occupation,[1] ethnic cleansing,[2] and apartheid[3]. Although these terms are controversial in some Western countries and particularly in Austria and Germany, they are recognized and corroborated by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as many prestigious Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations such as B’Tselem, Gisha, and Al-Haq.

We see the need to contextualize the escalation of violence in the Middle East in a history of settler colonialism, as it has been established by innumerable scholars around the world.[4] The colonial framework is clearly displayed in the writings of the founder of political Zionism, the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl. In “The Jewish State” – published in 1896 – he puts forward the idea to create a Jewish state in either Argentine or Palestine.[5] He himself refers to this as a colony: ‘We know and see for ourselves that States still continue to be created. Colonies secede from the mother country. […] It is true that the Jewish State is conceived as a peculiarly modern structure on unspecified territory.’[6] No surprise that Palestinians (Muslim, Jewish, Christian and other) who were living on the land which was taken from them by force, saw their evictors – European Jews – as colonizers.

As Palestinian journalist from occupied East Jerusalem Mohammed El-Kurd describes in an article from September this year: ‘The Palestinian People have consistently made it crystal clear that our enemy is the colonialist and racist ideology of Zionism, not Jews. Our capacity to produce such distinction is admirable and impressive, considering the heavy-handedness with which Zionism attempts to synonymize itself with Judaism.’

Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are under illegal occupation and face constant displacement by illegal settlements.[7] Already before the recent escalation, more than 200 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank only this year, many at the hands of Israeli settlers. Moreover, for 18 years the 2.3 million people of Gaza have been confined to 365km² – an area significantly smaller than Vienna. Nearly 80% of Gaza’s population are refugees who have been displaced by the Israeli military in 1948 and 1967, and who continue to be denied their right to return – which is a recognized violation of international law.[8]

Western governments, including Austria, have this far declared their unconditional support to Israel and several countries have banned ‘pro-Palestinian’ demonstrations and Palestinian symbols, thereby criminalizing any support for an oppressed people. Their political and military support is instead directed at an extremist far-right government, whose members include Likud politician Tally Gotliv, who is calling for the use of nuclear weapons in Gaza, while her colleague Ariel Kallner is demanding a second Nakba, Defence minister Yoav Gallant is describing the population as ‘human animals’, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog is refusing to differentiate between Hamas and Gazan civilians, claiming that the ‘entire nation’ of Gaza is ‘responsible’. At the same time, there is a dramatic spike in violence by Israeli settlers and occupation forces in the West Bank, with several Palestinian communities displaced and at least 134 people killed in the last few weeks.

 

The Censoring Practice of the Academy and its Complicity in Dehumanizing Palestinians

The Academy of Fine Arts lists ‘decolonization’ as one of its ‘fundamental premises’. Many of us, who study at this institution, take this declaration very seriously. It is part of the reason why we decided to apply and enrol here, why we moved here from all around the world. Unfortunately, ‘decolonization’ proves to be nothing more than a branding strategy.

After the cancellation of a lecture by Palestinian queer theorist Walaa Alqaisyia last year, and the cancellation of a lecture by the climate scholar Andreas Malm, the Academy has cancelled the Otto-Wagner 2023 lecture by Yanis Varoufakis, while trying to make it look like a mutually agreed postponement. The Academy has thereby taken part in a priori censorship and silencing of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices happening in many Western countries. Even if we do not agree to everything these scholars say and represent, we see the legitimate need to let these voices speak within our institution and contribute to a much needed engagement with a colonial legacy.

We witness a hermeneutics of suspicion running rampant: the charge of antisemitism always looms large. The dangerous conflation of antizionism with antisemitism is installed as a tacit consensus in this institution and beyond. It is a consensus that preempts the critique of Israel and silences critical – not least: Palestinian – voices. These claims are often made on the basis of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. However, antisemitism itself is variously defined, as the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism testifies in its critical response. The charge of antisemitism creates an atmosphere of anxiety and fear which seriously obstructs critical thinking and forestalls sustained analysis and debate. As artists and intellectuals, we are deeply worried about these developments and we see an urgent need to maneuvre out of this political and discursive impasse.

In parallel, an unprecedented authoritarian state gains ground in Austria and elsewhere. Almost never in the history of the second Republic have we witnessed such an excessive encroachment on basic rights as the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly. The line between legitimate support of the Palestinian people and the criminalization of protest got incredibly thin.

We are deeply concerned about the surge of attacks on Jewish people and institutions. We are equally worried that antisemitism is getting instrumentalized by the government and right-wing populists to foster anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism and xenophobia. More than ever, we need a joint effort to protect Muslim, Arab and Jewish communities from violence. However, it is our strong conviction that the commitment to counter violence in all forms must not make solidarity with Palestine impossible.

 

Demands

By participating in the tacit silence instead of facilitating serious discussions and analysis, the Academy participates in the legitimization of ethnic cleansing and genocide in a settler colonial context. In order to address this discriminatory policy and dehumanization of Palestinians, we have formulated the following demands:

 

* We demand of the Rectorate and Senate to repair the damage that has been done by the statement Stop the Violence and make a public statement that confers humanity to Palestinians and mourns their lives. Any new statement should be consistent in condemning the killing of civilians as well as acknowledge the complicity of Western governments in the colonial oppression and dehumanization of Palestinians.

* We demand of the Academy and of the teaching staff to stop their censorship of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices and to create discursive spaces for engagement with the topic of settler colonialism around the globe and resistance against it.

* We demand an explicit commitment against anti-Palestinian racism by adding it to the list ‘anti-Muslim racism, anti-Roma racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Semitic racism’ in §16 of the Academy´s Gleichstellungsplan.

* However, if the Academy decides to continue its policy of complicity, we demand all references to ‘decolonization’ in the Academy’s branding in  present and future documents to be immediately removed. We think that it is hypocritical for this institution to claim to be conducting ‘decolonial’ scholarship or even receive money for 'decolonial' projects, if they are not holding Israel accountable for the extremist political discourse and the war crimes committed in Gaza. 

Most of all, we ask all members of the Academy for compassion and support for the people of Palestine and our Palestinian colleges, by seeking out media coverage and political analysis that centers Palestinian people, and seriously engaging with Palestinian voices and perspectives. Only in this way can we truly ‘strive for understanding and raise their voices for an end to violence’.

Ceasefire now!

Release all captives and prisoners now!

End the occupation now!

 

 

Important: This petition is private whether you decide to sign anonymously or not. That means that only the initiators of the petition can see the signatures and the names of the people who sign. These names will not be shared with anyone outside of the group.

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We borrowed the main title for of this petition from Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. 2012. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1 (1): 1–40.

[1] https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/; https://jewishcurrents.org/archives-of-israeli-oppression; https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-10-09/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-cant-imprison-2-million-gazans-without-paying-a-cruel-price/0000018b-1476-d465-abbb-14f6262a0000.

[2] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/; https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-expert-warns-new-instance-mass-ethnic-cleansing-palestinians-calls; https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20231029_joint_emergency_call_to_the_international_community_stop_the_forcible_transfer_in_the_west_bank; https://www.972mag.com/intelligence-ministry-gaza-population-transfer/

[3] https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution; https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/?utm_source=annual_report&utm_medium=epub&utm_campaign=2021

[4] A non-exhaustive list of literature on the topic: Alqaisiya, Walaa. Decolonial Queering in Palestine. Theorizing Ethnography. Routledge, 2023. Barakat, Rana. “Writing/Righting Palestine Studies: Settler Colonialism, Indigenous Sovereignty and Resisting the Ghost(s) of History.” Settler Colonial Studies 8, no. 3, 349–63. Khalidi, Rashid Ismail. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. Henry Holt and Company, 2020. Pappé, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld, 2006. Robinson, Shira. Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State. Stanford University Press, 2013. Said, Edward W. The Question of Palestine. Vintage Books, 1980. Salamanca, Omar Jabary, Mezna Qato, Kareem Rabie, and Sobhi Samour. “Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine.” Settler Colonial Studies 2, no. 1 (January 2012): 1–8. Wolfe, Patrick. “Purchase by Other Means: The Palestine Nakba and Zionism’s Conquest of Economics.” Settler Colonial Studies 2, no. 1 (January 2012): 133–71. Ziadah, Rafeef, and Brenna Bhandar. “Acts and Omissions: Framing Settler Colonialism in Palestine Studies.” Jadaliyya, 2016. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32857/Acts-and-Omissions-Framing-Settler-Colonialism-in-Palestine-Studies

[5] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/06/israel-occupation-50-years-of-dispossession/; https://press.un.org/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm 

[6] United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194: https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-177019/; United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3236: https://www.un.org/unispal/data-collection/general-assembly/

[7] Herzl, Theodor. 2010 [1896]. The Jewish State. London: Penguin. p. 43ff.

[8] ibid. p. 101.