Exercising the right to demonstrate or exercising violence?
A report on the conference ‘Origins of “Israel” through the Centuries’ (28–30 October 2025) and the Julius Wellhausen Lecture on 29 October 2025 at Georg August University of Göttingen in conjunction with the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony.


The Old Testament Seminar at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Göttingen and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony hosted this year’s Julius Wellhausen Lecture at the Old Observatory on Wednesday, 29 October 2025. The lecture took place as part of an international conference on ‘The Origins of “Israel” through the Centuries,’ to which renowned scholars from Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Finland, and Israel had been invited. For the Wellhausen Lecture, the organisers have been able to win a renowned scholar from Israel who, in his most recent publications, has undertaken a systematic historicisation of biblical Torah practice and Israel identity, thereby attracting considerable attention both in academic circles and among the general public worldwide.

In the run-up to the event, some criticism of the invitation was voiced within the university and academic circles, as well as in the local press and on social media. The criticism was not directed at the speaker, but partly at the invitation of academics from Israel in general, and in particular at the university where the speaker of the Wellhausen Lecture works, Ariel University. The latter is not located in the territories recognised by international law as belonging to Israel, but in the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the former Jordanian territory of the so-called West Bank, which is predominantly inhabited by Palestinians and was occupied by Israel as a result of the Six-Day War initiated by Egypt and Jordan in 1967. According to the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Ariel settlement is located in Zone C, which was to be controlled by Israel until the conclusion of peace negotiations, which have since been broken off. However, both the Ariel settlement and Ariel University are not recognised under international law, and their legal status is also controversial within Israel itself.

The presidents of university and academy, the organisers of the Wellhausen Lecture and, last but not least, the student council AStA have thoroughly examined the criticism, but the majority have come to the conclusion that the invitation should stand. As with other countries whose government and state institutions are subject to concerns under international law, political or ethical considerations (one need only recall the genocide of the Muslim Uyghurs in China), the invitation does not constitute institutional cooperation with the university in question, nor does it legitimise it, but rather honours the researcher as an individual and has been made exclusively on the basis of academic standards within the framework of legally protected academic freedom.

In this context, it may also be of interest that, as is customary at all other Israeli universities, the guest lecturer teaches both Jewish (Israeli) and non-Jewish (Arab) students in his courses, and – unlike in some other countries – is not restricted in any way in his freedom of teaching and research, as evidenced not least by his consistently historical and critical research, which resolutely opposes political and ideological appropriation.
The event could only take place thanks to the help of the university security service and a large police presence. Even before the event, pressure was being exerted from various sides to discredit it and prevent it from taking place, through inflammatory rhetoric, press reports based on leaked information from internal university consultations, open letters, and personally offensive and threatening emails. Even a meeting with the organisers, requested by the AStA to de-escalate the situation, which the organisers agreed to without hesitation and which they felt was constructive, was exploited by a minority on social media to stir up opposition to the event. On the day of the event itself, a group calling itself ‘Students for Palestine’ called for a – to the best of our knowledge, not officially registered – demonstration at 6 p.m. via Instagram, and the location of the Old Observatory in Göttingen was deliberately scouted out by several individuals.

In the evening, approximately 30-40 demonstrators gathered in front of the main entrance to the venue, some of whom requested admission to the lecture. The organisers granted them entry on the clear understanding that there would be no disturbances inside the building during the lecture, which the demonstrators requesting admission expressly assured them would be the case. However, during the introduction of the speaker and the lecture itself, some of the demonstrators in the room communicated via mobile phone and, one after the other, began to shout interjections and loud accusations against the organisers and the guest speaker. They also chanted the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea,’ which in this context implicitly calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the genocide of Jews. Their actions also (deliberately) provoked counter-reactions from members of the audience who were interested in the lecture, leading to loud arguments. The event therefore had to be interrupted several times. The disrupters were first reminded of the agreement made with them and asked to remain calm and listen, then asked to leave the hall, which they refused to do loudly and with threats. They eventually had to be removed from the hall by security guards and the police.

In front of the building, the group chanted their slogans throughout the event, which could be heard inside the building and were intended to disrupt the event. A police cordon and individual arrests prevented some demonstrators from storming the building from the front and rear entrances.

Freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate are precious assets of the constitutional state. However, when both are used to create a climate of fear, to intimidate visitors to the event and to deliberately disrupt a scientific lecture with shouted slogans and insults from inside and brute force from outside, this right is being abused. The organisers' (naive) trust in the sincerity of the promise made upon admission to listen and not cause disruption was also deliberately and deceitfully abused by the disrupters in the hall. The guests from Israel, in particular the invited speaker, as well as Jewish colleagues and employees of the University of Göttingen and members of the Jewish community in Göttingen who attended the event, as well as the other visitors and students, were greatly disturbed and frightened and had to fear for their personal safety despite the large police presence. If this was the intention of the demonstrators, they achieved their goal.

The fact that the city of Göttingen allows such marches to take place in public spaces, which can only be kept under control with a large police presence, without prior notification, in the name of freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate, impairs, as events have shown, the right to free academic exchange and endangers the physical integrity of Göttingen's students and citizens.

It is thanks to the courage and composure of the guest speaker from Israel that, despite personal threats and constant disruptions from inside and outside, he gave his lecture and never lost the interest of the audience who had come to hear him speak, thanks to his fascinating presentation. After the lecture, there were even two or three personal conversations with members of the protest group in the hall, who kept their promise and did not disrupt the event, but listened and engaged in civilised discussion with the speaker about the question of ideological prerequisites in science and the danger they pose. Among the so-called ‘Students for Palestine’ and the demonstrators present, some of whom were prepared to use violence, this remained the exception, however.

gez. Prof. Dr. Reinhard Kratz
gez. Prof. Dr. Reinhard Müller