A large Jewish community lives in the district. Overall, there has been a recent increase in anti-Semitic incidents, reported the President of the Israelite Community (IKG), Oskar Deutsch. “First the word, then the deed: little by little the ground is being prepared for anti-Semitic attacks in Vienna.”
“Shocked and disgusted”
Pictures show that “Victory to Palestine” and “Death to Zionism” were sprayed on the walls of several houses in Leopoldstadt. Israel’s ambassador David Roet reacted with shock in a broadcast. “The ugly face of anti-Semitism is visible once once more” – during the week of commemorations in Mauthausen and Gusen. He also emphasized that the vast majority of Jews are Zionists, so using “Zionism” instead of “Judaism” should not deceive anyone.
Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) was “deeply shocked and disgusted by the anti-Semitic graffiti on the business of a descendant of Holocaust survivors in Vienna.” Anti-Semitism has no place in Austria. “We will continue to take a decisive stand once morest any form of anti-Semitism.” For the Viennese FPÖ club chairman Maximilian Krauss, the slogans evidenced a “dangerous left-wing and imported anti-Semitism.”
Other cases in the recent past
Deutsch listed other recent incidents. A public lecture by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese – German described her as a “notorious Israel demonizer and anti-Semite” – at the University of Vienna on Tuesday was followed by the march of an anti-Jewish group that chanted hate slogans. The following night, the anti-Semitic graffiti and calls for murder were placed on house walls in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. On May 1st, “terrorist slogans” were chanted at a demonstration on the Ring and calls for the destruction of Israel, and in the followingnoon, young people who were recognizable as Jewish because of their clothing were pelted with stones while chanting “Free Palestine.”
“None of this happens in a vacuum,” emphasized Deutsch in his statement, in which he also saw the Vienna Festival Weeks, which start in mid-May, as a duty. The appointment to the virtual council “Council of the Republic” legitimizes supporters of the Israel boycott campaign BDS such as Annie Ernaux and Yanis Varoufakis, which is partly responsible for “a climate of hostility once morest Israel and thus once morest Jews in Austria”. This means that Vienna’s cultural policy is “indirectly supporting the radicalization of anti-Semitic groups” and the city government must act immediately.
Cut funding?
On Thursday, the ÖVP called for funding to be withdrawn from the festival weeks if necessary. Director Milo Rau recently said in an interview that he might not detect any anti-Semitism in Ernaux and Varoufakis, said local councilor Laura Sachslehner angrily. The latter even described the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 as an “act of resistance” by Hamas, she said in a broadcast. If the festival does not adapt its invitation policy, they would have to pay back the funding granted to them, demanded Sachslehner.
