We reject these attempts to curtail the freedom of cultural expression, which are part of a larger campaign by populist and ultra-rightwing governments worldwide to limit the scope of critical thought – and, where possible silence it altogether.

In recent years, we in Israel have witnessed myriad attempts by the government, in cooperation with populist and ultra-rightwing parties, to shrink the spaces of cultural expression and limit pluralist, critical discourse. Methods include portraying dissenting artists, curators, intellectuals, and others as illegitimate and as fifth columnists, or withholding subsidies from institutions and public spaces which have allowed dissenting voices to be expressed.

We are opposed in principle to any political censorship of individuals or cultural institutions that allow space to criticism of Israeli policy. The chilling effect of these threats is the destruction of cultural debate in an open society.

We therefore call on the German government, its parliament, its media, and the broad public to resist this specious demand, and, more broadly to beware of the attempts by the Israeli government and its anti-liberal allies to export this damaging culture of fear and censorship to other democratic domains.