By Karl Pfeifer
The city of Vienna launched a promotion campaign with the slogan “Wien ist anders”: Vienna is different. And Vienna after the Second World War was different as it did not invite back its former Jewish citizens and tolerated anti-Semitism in politics and media for several decades.
After the publication of Carl Schorske’s book “Fin de siècle in Vienna” the city of Vienna discovered that the world wants to know more about the blooming of culture in Vienna and about those Jews who contributed to it. Since then the city of Vienna has opened a Jewish Museum, and Michael Häupl, the Social Democratic mayor, condemned the anti-Semitic election campaign in 2001 by the FPÖ of Jörg Haider.
Therefore it was a surprise to the Jewish community when the Vienna City Council (Wiener Gemeinderat) voted unanimously for an anti-Israeli resolution initiated by Omar al Rawi, a Social Democratic member of city council.
Erwin Javor and Peter Menasse of the Jewish periodical “Nu” sent three letters to Godwin Schuster, the Social Democratic president of the Council. They received no answer.
The first letter:
We call upon the Vienna city council in continuation of its foreign policy activities and in line with its unanimous Resolution of May 31, 2010, condemning Israel to consider the following resolution:
“The world has learnt with shock and horror about the massacre of the Uzbek Minority in Kyrgyzstan where at least 124 victims lost their lives. The Viennese city council condemns this brutal behaviour against peaceful people.”
Kindly transmit this demand to the members of Vienna city council.
With best regards,
Erwin Javor, Publisher NU
Peter Menasse, editor NU
The second letter:
Regarding the new foreign policy engagement of the Viennese City Council we propose the following resolution:
“The world has learnt with shock and horror the news of the execution of the Sunni leader Abdolmalek Rigi in an Iranian jail. The City Council of Vienna condemns this brutal behaviour against dissenters.”
We take note of the fact that our draft resolution sent to you several days ago concerning the massacre of the Uzbek Minority in Kyrgyzstan has apparently not been dealt with.
However we hope that the foreign policy engagement of the City Council of Vienna will not be restricted exclusively to the condemnation of the State of Israel. If so, we would be interested to know the reasons.
Hoping for an answer now.
The third letter:
Today we send a further proposal for a resolution by the City Council of Vienna. Concerning recent foreign policy engagement of this board we propose the following resolution:
“According to the umbrella organization of Kurdish Associations in Austria, Kurds are terrorised in Turkey by its Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said that Kurds would ‘drown in their own blood’. The City Council of Vienna expresses its consternation and calls upon the Turkish government to grant the Kurdish population full minority rights.”
We would like remind you that we still have received no answer to our two previous suggestions for foreign policy resolutions. Is only Israel attracting the attention of Vienna City council? How does it come to this peculiar and so far unique distinction by the city council?
Still waiting for your answer.
Foreigners should consider the slogan “Vienna is different” as a dangerous threat. And you can inform the president of Vienna City Council G. Schuster (godwin.schuster@spw.at) that anti-Semitism manifests itself by applying one standard to the State of Israel and another to the behaviour of any other nation.
