Exhibit Honoring Journalists Killed in Gaza Criticized
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An exhibit entitled “Faces of Peace” in the Church of the Holy Spirit (Bern, Germany) is being criticized as anti-Semitic for displaying portraits of journalists killed in Gaza. The artwork was created by Italian free-speech activist Gianluca Costantini.
From Der Bund (translated with Google):
The Jewish author Hannah Einhaus is always outspoken when she suspects antisemitism . She sharply criticizes the illustrations. The journalists involved had, among other things, worked for media outlets linked to Hamas, she writes in the magazine “Tachles.” Thus, the exhibition offers a platform to media professionals who abuse press freedom “to incite hatred of Jews and to provoke violence.”
Later in the article, Einhaus suggests while the exhibit might be good intentioned, ultimately it’s “violence-glorifying, ideological firebrands as neutral, peaceful providers of information.”
Gianluca has posted a response on his website:
I understand and respect the sensitivity of the Jewish community, especially at a historical moment marked by a disturbing increase in antisemitism in Europe. Precisely for this reason, however, it is important not to confuse the denunciation of violence against Palestinian civilians – including journalists who were trying to report on a war – with hatred towards Jews or towards Israel as such. Criticizing the violence of a state or an army does not mean denying the right of that people to exist, just as denouncing the crimes of Hamas does not mean being anti-Palestinian.
He ends with these words:
Displaying these drawings in a church open to the city is not an act of provocation, but of civic responsibility: it is an invitation to look into the eyes of people who lost their lives while exercising the right–duty to inform. If today, out of fear of being misunderstood or accused, we give up showing the human consequences of a war, we are accepting the idea that some lives are less visible, less tellable, less worthy of mourning.
The exhibit runs through December 10.
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