German NGO cancels Iddo Netanyahu book reading about cancel culture

A German Foreign Ministry-funded NGO with a reputation of imposing cancel culture on Israelis has pulled the plug on a book reading by Dr. Iddo Netanyahu. In a bizarre coincidence, the satirical novel he was meant to read from — "Itamar K." — deals exactly with the theme of controlling freedom of expression. 

The German-Israel Friendship Association (DIG) was meant to host the talk in Berlin last week. Speaking with i24NEWS over the telephone, Netanyahu said he received a cancelation letter that ended with the sentence: “We hope you understand.” 

Netanyahu told us, “I wrote back two sentences: ‘Of course, I understand very well. My novel deals with this silencing.”’ Critics of the cancelation have pointed out the irony that the DIG, which on paper is supposed to be pro-Israel, has declared Netanyahu persona non grata at its Berlin-Brandenburg chapter. 

According to the letter received by Netanyahu, the event was terminated due to the nebulous charge of connections to “ultra-right” and “right-wing organizations.” The DIG wrote on its website about the cancelation: "The reason for this is the fact that the Israeli author in Germany is, and allows himself to be, co-opted by politically far-right groups."

When asked about the DIG canceling invitations to other Israelis, Netanyahu said, “I would imagine that the DIG has been taken over by the left and don’t want to hear any voices they don’t want to hear.” 

Netanyahu, the younger brother of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has spoken at other locations in Germany without any glitches. The prolific author has addressed a student fraternity in Freiburg, the Bamberg Jewish community in Bavaria, and has held book readings in Dresden and Hanover.

Dr. Rafael Korenzecher, the publisher of the German-Jewish newspaper Jewish Review, met with Netanyahu during the author’s recent book tour through Germany. His newspaper issued a fiery X post in response, accusing DIG president Volker Beck of blocking the reading “because the author and his work aren't left-wing enough for him." The post also alleged that the organization did not want to host a relative of the Israeli premier.

Beck refused to respond to numerous i24NEWS requests about his cancelation of Netanyahu’s talk.

Beck has been criticized before for his running of the supposedly pro-Israel group. The disgraced former Green party politician was ousted from the German parliament in 2016 for possession of the illicit drug crystal meth. In 2014, during Beck's tenure as a lawmaker, he demanded that the German government's military aid to Israel be conditioned on Jerusalem ending settlement construction and improving the situation for Palestinians.

Beck has also faced intense criticism from lawmakers of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party over the years for allegedly promoting anti-Zionist views. In 2022, Amichai Chikli, who is now Minister for Diaspora Affairs and for combating antisemitism, told this journalist: “The incessant involvement of the German government and its agents in Israel's internal political issues through various funds — and, even more so, under the guise of ‘pro-Israel’ organizations such as the DIG which boycotts conservative Zionist organizations in Israel such as Im Tirtzu, crosses every possible line.” Earlier that year, the DIG's youth organization had sent and then retracted an invitation to Yonatan Shay, who used to work for the Jewish Agency in Germany and now works for Im Tirtzu, a NGO that describes itself as working to advance Zionist values in Israel. Shay was meant deliver a lecture and train members of the DIG. 

A leaked recording at the time revealed that Beck said about Shay’s cancelation, “I don’t want to hide it, there was also a little apprehension from the Foreign Office when we let Yonatan Shay train us there.” He added, “We are just under observation by the foreign office.” The German Foreign Ministry denied that it has a blacklist with regards to DIG events.

Speaking about Beck and the DIG, Likud lawmaker Ariel Kallner told this journalist last year, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

i24NEWS sent press queries to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The ministry spokesman as well as Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, declined to comment on the DIG’s cancelation of Netanyahu’s reading.