<
https://theconversation.com/as-the-war-in-gaza-continues-germanys-unstinting-defence-of-israel-has-unleashed-a-culture-war-that-has-just-reached-australia-223329>
"Globally renowned Australian intellectual Ghassan Hage has devoted his career
to unpicking the nature of racism in multicultural Australia and elsewhere –
with the kind of bravura and theoretical flair that either attracts or repels
readers, according to type.
His work led him to being offered a stint at Germany’s prestigious Max Planck
Institute for Social Anthropology.
On February 7 2024, however, after an article in the German newspaper
Welt am
Sonntag accused him of “hatred of Israel”, the Max Planck Society issued a
terse statement ending its “working relationship” with Hage.
This came less than two months after the Max Planck Foundation, with war in
Gaza raging, had announced “additional funding for German-Israeli
collaborations”.
The Melbourne-based academic was accused by the Institute of having “abused his
civil liberties” and his “fundamental right to freedom of opinion”. The
organisation insisted that “racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, discrimination,
hatred and agitation have no place in the Max Planck Society”.
The implication was clear – Hage’s trenchant criticism of Israel’s war,
particularly on social media, had seen him fired. As he wrote in his statement:
What to me is a fair, intellectual critique of Israel, for them is
“antisemitism according to the law in Germany”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
