Overview
- The Foreign Office issued a formal reprimand to the Goethe-Institut and demanded stricter pre-event vetting of partners and programs.
- The Goethe-Institut said it had not known about some Instagram posts by Basma al‑Sharif and expressed regret while rejecting antisemitism.
- The Vilnius show was curated by the local Contemporary Art Centre, and the institute said the works on view did not contain antisemitic content.
- Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, criticized the institute for giving the filmmaker a platform and said it sent Jews a hostile message.
- The institute relies on Foreign Office funding of about €230 million this year, which raises the stakes for oversight of its cultural programming abroad.