Allegations of Antisemitism in Legal Discourse in Germany

Lecture Series

Fifth lecture on “The Normalization of Anti-Jewish Language“ of TraCe lecture series “Arguing Violence. Making Peace.”

The fifth lecture of the TraCe lecture series 2023/2024, organized by TraCe at Justus Liebig University Giessen, is given by Nina Keller-Kemmerer and titled “Allegations of Antisemitism in Legal Discourse in Germany: The Normalization of Anti-Jewish Language”. Nina Keller-Kemmerer focuses on postcolonial perspectives on international law and coordinates the research project “Struggling for Justice – Antisemitismus als justizielle Herausforderung” at JLU Giessen.

Her lecture deals with the judicial handling of so-called accusations of antisemitism. Based on an interdisciplinary perspective, she will show how the process of de-tabooising antisemitic resentment, which emerged in German public discourse at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, is also reflected in judicial proceedings. Law is used to defend antisemitic resentment by way of a victim-perpetrator reversal and, with some delay, is also confirmed by the courts. In the processes, the narrative of the German past paradoxically becomes a normalization of antisemitic resentment, whereby an open discourse on contemporary manifestations of antisemitism is excluded.

When? Wednesday, January 24 2024, 6:15-7:45 pm

Where? Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, GCSC (International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture), Konferenzraum 1 - Otto-Behaghel-Straße 12 (über Alter Steinbacher Weg), 35394 Gießen.

The TraCe lecture series in the winter term 2023/2024 will be held in person and in English. There will be a livestream on TraCe's YouTube channel.