Newspaper Page Text
Frankfurt Jews again vow
to block Fassbinder’s play
by David Kantor
BONN (JTA)—The Jewish com
munity of Frankfurt reaffirmed
Sunday its determination to pre
vent any further attempts to stage
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play
“Garbage: The City of Death,”
which it considers anti-Semitic,
despite telephone threats to its
leaders from anonymous callers.
The callers warned that Germany
would not allow the Jews to recap
ture their position of power in this
country.
Meanwhile, the play’s director,
Guenther Ruehle, reportedly
announced his intention to post
pone the official premiere of the
play until Nov. 13, and to begin
negotiations with the Jewish com
munity to allow him to stage it at
that time. Ruehle also reportedly
said Monday’s rescheduled pre
miere had been canceled out of
concern that demonstrations around
the play could become violent.
Ruehle had rescheduled the first
performance of the play for Mon
day after the original premiere was
disrupted last week. A group of 30
Jewish protesters took over the
stageand prevented theshowfrom
going on; a three-hour discussion
with and among the audience en
sued.
Michel Friedman, a spokesper
son for the community, said that
its members had purchased enough
tickets to all upcoming performan
ces and would occupy the stage
before each show began, the tactic
they used successfully at the sche
duled premiere.
In the play, a Jewish real estate
developer who heartlessly exploits
tenants has no name and is referred
to only as “The Rich Jew.” Before
his death in 1982 at age 36, Fass
binder rejected accusations that it
was anti-Semitic, and maintained
that the involvement of Jews in
real estate development in the West
End district was a classic example
of their being exploited to do the
“dirty work” of non-Jews.
Ruehle insisted that his drama
tization had avoided an anti-Semitic
slant, adding that the character
called “The Rich Jew” in the origi
nal Fassbinder version was referred
to in the current production as “A .”
The West German press has re
ported extensively about the action
taken by the Jewish community,
which some reporters termed its
“coming-out.” Never before in West
Germany’s post-war history, noted
some commentators, has the small
and exhausted Jewish community
here reacted so vehemently to what
they considered an anti-Semitic
campaign. Some papers warned,
however, that the Jewish reaction
would touch off a wave of anti-
Semitism in the country.
The conservative daily. Die Welt,
noted that it was Jews and only
Jews who were the protesters who
forced the cancellation of the pre
miere of the play. “Once again
...they stood there alone, in the
heart of Germany, in 1985,” its edi
torial said. The editorial also
attacked Ruehle for insisting on
staging the play.
But another conservative paper,
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zei-
tung, which has opposed the per
formance all along, warned the
Jewish community against taking
the law into its own hands. “The
best protection for the Jews, the
only protection for any citizen and
JERUSALEM (JTA) —The
attorney general indicated Tuesday
he might take legal action against
the publisher of an article which
appeared in a West Bank settler’s
biweekly urging settlers to fight
through all means any possible
government decision to relinquish
parts of Judea and Samaria, and
the Gaza Strip.
Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir
said that publication of the article
might constitute incitement to revolt,
but he added that it was up to the
police to decide whether the material
should be forwarded to him for his
legal opinion.
The article has already stirred
the political community, with Knesset
for any minority, is sticking to the
law,” its editorial stated.
The leftwing Frankfurter Run
dschau—in an editorial by its editor-
in-chief—acknowledged that there
were differences of opinion among
the staff as to whether the play
should be staged. Fiowever, in
reporting on the controversy, the
paper gave prominence to opin
ions expressed by those who sup
ported the performance and who
opposed or ridiculed the Jewish
response to it.
The leftwing Die Tagezeitung of
Berlin ran the story of the Jewish
take-over of the stage on page one,
reporting extensively on the dis
cussion that took place in the
theater that evening. The paper’s
readers are mostly supporters of
the Green Party and the Young
Guard of the Social Democrats,
both of whom have supported the,
play's performance.
member Matityahu Peled having
asked Police Minister Flaim Bariev
to sue the publisher of the periodical
and the author of the article.
The article appeared in Alef Yed,
a biweekly in the Samaria town of
Ariel. It was signed by M. Ben
Yisrael. probably a pseudonym,
and it described the following scenario
in case of a possible peace settlement
with Jordan:
“Each and every one (of the
Jewish settlers in J udea and Samaria)
should prepare himself spiritually
to stand in Judea, Samaria and the
Gaza region, and to raise his arm—
and his gun—against his brother.
In that hour of national emergency,
most of the means will be legitimate,
in the absence of a more comfortable
and acceptable choice.”
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PAGE 3 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 8, 1985