Hajo Funke | Solidarity on the edge of the abyss

Lecture and discussion with the political scientist Prof Dr Hajo Funke (Otto Suhr Institute, FU Berlin, em.)

Israel is deeply shaken after the Hamas pogrom of over 1,200 innocent people of all ages on 7 October 2023 and the deadly endangerment of the more than 240 hostages who were abducted. Horrified by the failure of the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which is riddled with right-wing extremists and national-religious figures, over 80% no longer want to see him as prime minister. Israelis are traumatised, they fear for the hostages and an ever-increasing escalation, they trust the American government more than their own. They rightly expect more solidarity and security.

Hajo Funke outlines how the current discrimination could be reversed and how a two-state solution could be found: a separate Palestinian state and a differently founded security for Israel. According to the anti-Semitism researcher, this would in any case re-balance the relationship with Israel to some extent in both Arab states and Western countries and thus also curb the exaggerated, often anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements that are currently being launched.

Prof Dr Hajo Funke is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University of Berlin. His research focusses on politics and culture, right-wing extremism and right-wing populism, dealing with the Holocaust and conflicts in the Middle East.
Hajo Funke studied political science, sociology and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin until 1971, followed by a doctorate in 1976 and a post-doctoral qualification in 1984. In the summer of 1987, he worked at the Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, in the USA, before taking up the Chair of Politics and Culture at the Institute for Political Science in Berlin in 1993, which he held until his retirement in 2010.

Featured photo: Cristian Gottardi (Unsplash), Jerusalem