Israel allows civil defence squads to resume training: Following a report in Ma'ariv and against the background of growing tensions along the border with the Golan Heights, the IDF accepted the pleas of Golan residents and defence squads will now resume training to prepare for any scenario, including terrorist infiltration
With the slogan “Judith Butler renounce the Adorno Prize,” Jewish and non-Jewish protesters claim that the fundamental issue behind their protest is the anti-Semitism displayed by the city of Frankfurt when granting the 50.000 euro Adorno Prize to Jewish-American philosopher Judith Butler.
Sacha Stawski Protest Organizer:
“We were looking for a diverse crowd, we wanted to have Jews here, we wanted to have non-Jews here, we wanted to have Germans here and non-Germans and we achieved what we wanted to achieve.”
The Central Council of Jews in Germany has strongly criticized the awarding of the Adorno Prize to Judith Butler because, they say, she is acting against Israel by supporting the boycott, divestment and international sanctions campaign against Israel, and that although Judith Butler has disassociated herself from Hamas and Hezbollah’s violence, she has stress the importance of understanding them as social movements that are progressive and part of the global left.
Adorno Prize Protester:
“Judy Butler is against Israel and she speaks for Hamas and some terror organizations and I stand for Israel hare so I’m against the prize for Judith Butler.”
The City of Frankfurt claims that with Judith Butler one of the most significant thinkers of our times in the field of moral philosophy is honored. Does the Adorno Prize jury know that at the same time they honor a major protagonist of an academic and cultural boycott of Israel?
Felix Semmelroth Frankfurt Deputy Mayor:
“I don’t think the jury was awared of that but she was awarded the prize because of her affinity to Adorno’s thinking and for outstanding philosophical work.”
In remembrance of Theodor Adorno, a Frankfurt philosopher and art critic, this award serves to acknowledge outstanding performances in the fields of music, theatre, film and philosophy as in the case of Judith Butler.
Felix Semmelroth Frankfurt Deputy Mayor:
“She has a lot of very productive work and that was why she was awarded the prize and not for a political point of view which I, for example, do not share in the least but still she is an outstanding public intellectual and she is one of the most renown philosophers in the world and in America and that is why she is being honored for.”
Sacha Stawski Protest Organizer:
“If a woman supports boycott, divestment, sanction activities against the State of Israel then she is not to be awarded a prize no matter what else she does.”
Judith Butler has reacted to the criticisms of Anti-Semitism by saying: “The accusations against me that I support Hamas and Hezbollah are not true, that I support the boycott, divestment and international sanctions campaign against Israel are partially true, and that I am anti-Semitic are totally false.”
Adorno Prize Protester:
“So I think even in her thoughts or the prize she gets has nothing to do with anti-Semitism a person like this doesn’t have to get a prize because then she becomes popular and many people maybe think it’s right, and I think it’s not good because we had the same story before in Germany and I don’t accept that these things again happen in Germany.”
Judith Butler has received the 50,000 euro Adorno Prize, but the debate goes on between those who believe that critising the Israeli government has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, and those who believe that hyper-criticism of Israel is in fact a new way of anti-Semitism.
Wilson Ruiz, JN1, Germany
