With the racist right there is nothing to talk about because there is no shared value base and hence they must be dealt with through legal means dealing with hate crimes and racism and through social delegitimization. I have nothing to say to those who shout " Jews will not replace us ".
In any case, the worst way in my view to treat antisemitism is through frozen and one-sided definitions that do not suit the complex and changing reality. And certainly not through the IHRA definition of antisemitism that deliberately conflates anti- Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism and whose entire purpose is to protect Israel from sharp and justified criticism— what the Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir called " a discursive Iron Dome " against any criticism of Israel and of Zionism. This confusion for which Israel and its staunch supporters are responsible is extremely dangerous because it fuels antisemitism— following this logic Jews are accused for Israel ' s crimes.
11. Are you familiar with the strategic framework developed in Europe regarding memory policies? Do you believe their approach is effective in the current context of democratic backsliding and the rise of far-right movements across the continent?
I am familiar but only superficially with this strategic program and in general I see it as a blessing because first it recognizes the plurality of memories that exist today in Europe which include, as the program explicitly notes, the Sinti and Roma and groups subject to racial discrimination as well as antisemitism. And at the same time, to the best of my understanding, the program does not provide adequate guidance for the main problem of memory culture: what happens when there are conflicting memories?
And perhaps I will conclude the whole interview and in reference also to this strategy, with an argument by a historian I greatly admire, Charles Maier. Already in 1993 he argued in an article called A Surfeit of Memory? that the excessive turn to memory— that is, to the past— is an expression of a deep political crisis in which we have difficulty building functioning political institutions that are based not on looking at the past but on turning toward the future. Perhaps it is time to invest a bit less energy in memory and a bit more energy in a future-oriented emancipatory political project.
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