Benjamin Schütze, “Deutsche Israelpolitik: Die Truppen der Staatsräson” [German policy on Israel. The troops of raison d’état], guest commentary, taz January 20, 2026, https://taz.de/Deutsche-Israelpolitik/!6146623/.
Benjamin Schütze experienced an attempt at censorship by the antisemitism commissioner at the University of Erlangen. The commissioner had informed the Bavarian chief public prosecutor that Schütze had used the term “genocide” in a lecture at the 35th German Orientalists’ Day. The title of his lecture was “Supporting (plausible) acts of genocide: Red lines and the failure of German Middle Eastern Studies,” and the anti-Semitism commissioner demanded that it be “adjusted.”
Although this attempt at censorship was successfully repelled, it did not fail to have an intimidating effect. Schütze therefore takes this experience as the starting point for his article on the increasingly authoritarian anti-antisemitism in Germany and the “troops of raison d’état” who established it and continue to expand it. This anti-antisemitism, he argues, does not serve to combat antisemitism at all, but rather aims to institutionalize German support for genocide in Gaza, normalize anti-Arab racism, and defame researchers who show solidarity with Palestine. Respect for international law and freedom of science and assembly has become collateral damage of raison d’état. While the government is thus opposing the Basic Law and international law, society must now ask itself whether it wants to continue to support or submit to this decision, or whether it will fight back.