From Reuters:
“Antisemitism rose more than
80% in Germany last year, watchdog says”
Antisemitic incidents in Germany,
from graffiti to attempted arson, rose around 83% last year, watchdog RIAS said
on Tuesday, surging after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's
military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Around half the 4,782 recorded
antisemitic incidents were linked with anti-Israel activism, with many
involving a relativisation or denial of the Nazi Holocaust in which 6 million
Jews were killed, RIAS said.
While antisemitism has been on
the rise worldwide, it is a particularly sensitive subject in Germany, where
Jewish institutions are under heavy police protection. Critics including
prominent Jewish-German intellectuals say this has led to German authorities
and media failing to differentiate sufficiently between antisemitism and
criticism of Israel and as a result curbing freedom of speech. In the week
after the Hamas-led attack, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated the idea
of Israel's security as a "reason of state" or matter of national
interest for Germany.
In its antisemitism report, RIAS
cited incidents such as the destruction of Israeli flags hung in solidarity
with Israel after Oct. 7. In another incident, "Free Palestine from
Zionists" was scrawled on a toilet door and the words "Save Israel"
and Star of David scratched off.
Felix Klein, the government
official charged with coordinating the fight against antisemitism, has said
antisemitism was already on the rise before Oct. 7, in part driven by the
far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD). The AfD has said Germany, which
has a Jewish population of about 225,000, should move on from atoning for its
past crimes, with members accused - and in some cases convicted - of using Nazi
language. Klein said many incidents since then could be traced back to
Germany's growing Muslim community, and urged Muslim associations to speak up
more against this. Anti-Muslim incidents registered in Germany also rose last
year, the CLAIM network of NGOs monitoring Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred
said on Monday.
Israel says around 1,200 people
were killed and more than 250 hostages seized in the Oct. 7 attack. The Israeli
offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza has killed more than 37,600 people,
Palestinian health authorities say.
^ Sadly this statistic is not
surprising. Anti-Jewish Violence has grown to record number across the US and
the whole World. ^
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