Milo Rau sent a letter worldwide: Read the pamphlet here: https://www.festwochen.at/en/letter-milo-rau

On October 5, 2025 – the day Europe stood united against antisemitism – I marched with my family in Munich, alongside thousands across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We rallied for democracy. We stood for Jewish life. We said: Never again is now. And on that very same day, Milo Rau – artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen – published a politically charged, anti-Israel screed titled “Letter,” under the official branding of one of Austria’s most prestigious, publicly funded cultural institutions. The timing was no accident. The text was released near the second anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacre, and it does what Rau has done before: blur lines between victim and perpetrator, justify terror as resistance, and frame silence about Hamas atrocities as somehow Nazi-esque. According to Rau, if you don’t join his ideological revolution, you’re complicit – by bloodline.

I denounce this letter for what it is:
➡️ A dangerous distortion of history.
➡️ A smear campaign against Israel.
➡️ A manipulation of taxpayer-funded art to push a hardline, activist agenda

Lets be clear:

This isn’t about freedom of expression.
It’s about publicly funded institutions giving cover to a radical, one-sided worldview that excuses antisemitic violence – and brands dissenters as enemies.Hannah Arendt warned us of this exact mechanism: the erosion of political judgment through moral grandstanding. She called it the banality of evil. Rau’s letter fits the description. This isn’t radical art. It’s radical propaganda dressed in cultural robes. As a political philosopher, a European citizen, and a committed democrat, I am deeply alarmed at how mainstream antisemitic boycotts and cancel culture have become on our cultural stages since October 7. Rau’s letter feeds that fire. It legitimizes the anti-Israel wing of the Eurovision movement. It pressures Jewish artists into silence. And it encourages others to fall in line – or risk being branded as fascists.

This is not Art. This is Intimidation.

The Wiener Festwochen must decide: Are they a platform for democratic dialogue – or for ideological warfare?

Post Skriptum 10.10.2025 Austrian Nobel Prize Winner Elfride Jelinek signs Protest against Milo Rau. https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20251010_OTS0124/absage-an-einen-aufruf-von-milo-rau

And Nachtkritik took up Regula Staempflis Protest as a commentary & publishes a long article on Milo Raus Letter : https://nachtkritik.de/meldungen/israel-gaza-offener-brief-gegen-milo-rau