Johann Chapoutot, a specialist in Nazism, canceled his participation at a screening planned for Tuesday, February 6, of The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer's film about the daily life of Rudolf Höss, the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz. Scheduled at the movie theater Le Grand Action in Paris's fifth arrondissement, a discussion between the historian and Sadia Agsous-Bienstein, a researcher in Arabic and Hebrew language, literature and culture, was to have been hosted by the anti-Zionist Jewish group Tsedek!.
"I cannot, in good conscience, take part in your activities," said Chapoutot, on February 1, in a written message to Samuel Leter, the Tsedek! member in charge of the film club. At issue was the organization's press release, published on October 7, 2023, in which the group wrote: "It's not up to us to judge the tactics of the Palestinian resistance. But it is our responsibility to reiterate its fundamental legitimacy."
Chapoutot was unaware of the statement until a Telerama article, published on February 1, addressed the initial cancellation of the event, which was to have been held on January 30, at the Majestic Bastille theater in Paris, with Agsous-Bienstein (Chapoutot had a scheduling conflict on that date).
"It wasn't possible for me," said the researcher. "I'm a specialist in Nazism and the Holocaust, and Hamas is a Holocaust denier. Killing children and raping women are not acts of resistance. This is a massacre of a terrorist nature whose antisemitic aspect cannot be disputed."
Simon Assoun, one of Tsedek!'s spokespeople, decried "a dishonest reading of this press release," quoting the one the collective published on October 12: "The scale and brutality of the massacres committed (...) must be condemned for what they are: war crimes. The hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian lives snatched away wound us."
Leter said he didn't understand the historian's belated reaction: "In the email in which he agreed to take part in the meeting, he says he admires our courage!" In the message dated January 10, 2024, Chapoutot makes specific reference to the lawyer Arié Alimi: "I know your collective well, whose courage I admire, just like Arié's, who is, I believe, one of you."
In reality, the historian thought he was communicating with Golem, the movement co-founded by Alimi in the wake of the November 12 march against antisemitism in Paris. "I made the mistake of replying automatically, without checking, to help what I thought should be supported: a collective of left-wing Jews who had opposed the participation of the RN [Rassemblement National, far-right] in the demonstration against antisemitism, the RN-FN [Front National, the party's former name] having been founded, let's remember, by veterans of the Waffen-SS and the Milice," he said.
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