Controversy has erupted in Germany after two major universities cancelled events featuring the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, following pressure from state governments. Several academics and organizations have condemned the decision as a violation of academic freedom.

Francesca Albanese was due to speak at the Free University (FU) in Berlin on February 19 along with Eyal Weizman, the British-Israeli director of the research agency Forensic Architecture. But university authorities decided to cancel the public event after what FU President Günter M. Ziegler described as "massive criticism of the two guests from different directions."

Another lecture by Albanese, at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, had already been canceled a few days before.

The criticism in Berlin included statements from the Israeli ambassador to Germany and the city's conservative Mayor Kai Wegner, who told the Bild tabloid newspaper earlier this month: "I expect the FU to cancel the event immediately and take a clear stand against antisemitism."

Anti-Defamation League criticizes special rapporteur

Albanese has previously been condemned by the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for using what it calls antisemitic tropes. The ADL particularly objected to posts on the social media platform X in which Albanese drew historical parallels between Israel's military actions in Gaza and the Nazi era, in which she wrote: "Our collective obliviousness to what led, 100 years ago, to the Third Reich’s expansionism and the genocide of people not in conformity with the 'pure race' is asinine. And it is leading to the commission of yet another genocide..."

The ADL also condemned a post by Albanese in which she denied that the Hamas attack was motivated by antisemitism, in a response to a statement by French President Emmanuel Macron: "The greatest antisemitic massacre of our century? No, @EmmanuelMacron. The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism but in response to Israel's oppression."

There has also been anger over an X post in which Albanese appeared to respond approvingly to a post that set images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler next to each other. Albanese later clarified that her comment was about how a person who commits crimes against humanity is sometimes received with honors by the public.

Eyal Weizman's Forensic Architecture, meanwhile, has attracted criticism from Israel's supporters for its long-term data investigation of the military action in Gaza, entitled "A Cartography of Genocide."

There were accusations that the FU Berlin was giving a platform to antisemitism from the German-Israeli Society (DIG), whose president Volker Beck wrote in a statement on February 9 after the previous cancellation of the exhibit "The Vicious Circle" by the National Holocaust Center: "At the Free University of Berlin, one gets the impression that freedom is only given to antisemitic positions, and that antisemitism is not consistently challenged and countered."

Berlin's Science Minister Ina Czyborra also chimed in, saying, "In my view, Ms. Albanese's statements meet all the criteria of antisemitism, and I question whether the safety of Jewish students can be guaranteed at an event planned in this way."

Czyborra's office did not respond to a DW request to clarify which statements or which criteria of antisemitism she was referring to.

Both the FU Berlin and the LMU in Munich are members of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), which in 2019 adopted the working definition of antisemitism set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). That definition is considered controversial by many, including Israeli civil society organizations, as they believe it protects the Israeli government from legitimate criticism. 

The events also come against the backdrop of a resolution titled "Antisemitism in Universities and Schools" passed in late January in the German parliament, intended among other measures to "prevent the activities of groups that spread Israel-related anti-Semitism"; the resolution also came under heavy criticism by Jewish and non-Jewish groups alike, who said it could stifle academic freedom and lead to silencing and censorship.

'We will sit outside the university if necessary' 

German universities have become the focus of rows over the conflict in Gaza and German society's response to it. The FU Berlin's leadership caused controversy last year when it called in the police to clear a protest camp that had been set up on the university grounds. That decision prompted a letter of protest from around 100 Berlin academics at the time, which itself triggered angry statements from many German politicians.

FU President Ziegler said that activist groups had advertised and "taken over" the event where Albanese was due to speak, to the extent that they had given the impression they were co-organizers or partners of the university. This, he said, meant that there was an "acute danger" of a "large conflict in the hall." 

In the current situation, Ziegler added, it was therefore impossible to "sensibly guarantee the safety" of participants. As an alternative, the FU offered to move the event behind closed doors and make it accessible online. That idea was dismissed by Weizman, who posted on X that they would show up at the university at the appointed time anyway:

"We will be there and will engage whoever comes to attend, whether inside or outside the building. We refuse to turn this into a closed door meeting," he wrote. "We will sit outside the university if necessary, wherever freedom still exists in Germany."

Another Berlin event scheduled for Tuesday featuring Albanese and Weizman was forced to switch venues on the same day, after the original, larger venue was subjected to what the organizers, political party Diem25/Mera25, called "immense pressure from German politicians and the Berlin police to cancel the event."

The private event went ahead with a heavy police presence, with police and translators standing next to the stage, monitoring the content of all of the presenters, including Albanese. 

"The fact that [the universities] deny the possibility to speak to a UN official, a UN independent expert, is very serious," Albanese told DW. "It has not happened in any other place."

Albanese discussed having fulfilled her mandate in countries all over the world but was surprised that two German public universities succumbed to apparent pressure from various actors to cancel her appearances.

"I was not expecting again universities to give in," she added. "If universities stop being spaces where we can also afford discussing difficult issues, painful issues, respectfully, in a dignified way, all the more as I speak about international law, international legal development, factual development — this is very serious. This is censorship."

Legal expert: Cancellation 'scandalous,' 'extraordinary' 

The FU Berlin's decision mirrored the one by the LMU in Munich a few days earlier, where Albanese had been due to speak about "colonialism, human rights, and international law" on February 16. That lecture was canceled by LMU citing alleged security concerns. 

Such excuses appear to be unclear, according to some legal experts.

"The security concerns were never specified, so one must be afraid that they are spurious, and just a pretext, and the real reason is the pressure from the press, from interest groups, and indeed from the mayor of Berlin," said Ralf Michaels, director of the Max Planck Institute for comparative and international law in Hamburg, about the cancelation at FU Berlin.

Michaels called the cancellation "scandalous."

"Even among events that get canceled in Germany, this one is extraordinary," he told DW. "First, opposing Albanese's right to speak is also a kick in the eye for the United Nations and for public international law. Secondly, the fact that the political branch, the mayor of Berlin himself, demands to have a say in what events take place [at] the university, is a gross violation of the autonomy of universities."

'Pernicious' nature of political 'censorship'

Weizman was also outraged by the cancellation. 

"The event in question appears to have been cancelled because the Israeli embassy and the office of the mayor of Berlin now dictate the curriculum for students in Germany," he said in a statement to DW. 

Weizman added: "Politicians are encouraging universities to censor esteemed international voices for the rule of law, based on pernicious and manipulative interpretations of the statements and actions of those individuals, and universities are taking full part in that censorship. How much louder must the warnings from history be?" 

"The speakers are by no means radicals," Michaels added. "One is a special rapporteur of the UN human rights council; the other is a widely regarded and prizewinning researcher in his field. So whatever one thinks of their opinions, they are certainly not mere political ideologues."

Robert Brockhaus, attorney at KM8 Lawyers in Berlin and a member of the advisory board of the online legal media platform Verfassungsblog, said that the compromise the university offered — to hold the event online and behind closed doors — betrayed its inconsistency.

"If Albanese is an antisemite and is not allowed to speak, then that should also be true for an online event," he told DW. "It takes away the very function of the university — to be a public space of public debate and exchange — to move an event into a small room with a handful of people."

Edited by: Kyra Levine

This article was updated on February 21 to clarify Volker Beck's statement.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.