We, architecture students of the IKA, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, wanted to express our anger and frustration at the cancellation of the appearance of Yanis Varoufakis, as well as our deep solidarity. We are not surprised that the institute acted in such a way, despite its fondness of „postcolonial“ and „antiracist“ rhetoric, its university disinvited Dr. Walaa Alqaisiya last year under a blatantly colonial pretext and organized excursions into the Apartheid state of Israel, without talking about the fences, checkpoints, and walls, i.e. colonial architecture. The organizing institutions write as a justification for the cancellation:

„In the current dramatically escalating, geopolitical situation, the organizing institutions, Bruno-Kreisky Forum, Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna, International Politics, Institute for Art and Architecture, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, have decided to postpone the lecture by Yanis Varoufakis. The corresponding debate space will be reopened as soon as the political situation allows for corresponding constructive-confrontational dialogues again.“

We value immensely that Yanis Varoufakis speaks out about Israel's Apartheid/Occupation, this is a rare phenomenon among the mostly spineless political cast within the European Union, which declares Solidarity with Ukraine (as our university did as well), where their geopolitical agenda aligns with an occupied people but is quiet about Palestine (or even gives open support to the war-crimes of Israel). While Gaza is being obliterated, the Israeli blockade is being tightened, to include water, food, and electricity (a war crime), it is urgent to put the ongoing occupation of Palestine ( and the crucial role architecture plays in it) front and center, while liberal Academia wants to push even the mention of it away from those sacred, exclusive halls.

This is part of a strategy that wants to silence pro-Palestine voices and shut them out of the public discourse so that the people of Europe are kept disinformed. This silence of academia that always surrounds ongoing colonial violence needs to be broken, it is our responsibility as students of architecture to not shy away from the built structures that fence in, control, and oppress people.

•We call upon the IKA to issue an apology to Yanis Varoufakis, that underlines the legitimacy of speaking out against Israel's Apartheid/Occupation.

•We demand that Yanis Varoufakis be able to give his lecture in an alternative cultural space in Vienna, that is open to the public, that he is given no restrictions on speech, and that this is paid for by the organizing institutions.

•We call upon students and employees of the university to act in Solidarity with Yanis Varoufakis and Palestine.

We hope that under such conditions Yanis Varoufakis is still willing to give the lecture.