Germany sees great support in favour of anti-Semitism beliefs as the activists confirm protesters’ sentiments as “fine to criticise Israel from the country of the Shoah.”
The head of a German anti-discrimination think tank stated Germany has become too ignorant about their own past as the protests against antisemitism reach an exceptional point since Israel’s counterstrike on Gaza.
While unveiling the Antonio Amadeu Foundation’s latest antisemitism monitor on Tuesday (Nov. 7), Nikolas Lelle found that Germany’s far-right agenda has successfully pushed a narrative that may free Germany from the bloodied history of murdering 6 million Jews in World War II.
According to sociologist Beate Kuepper, 5.7 percent of the population has shown antisemitic behaviour, which is three times higher than in 2021. In previous cases, adults with origins in Turkey or Russia were by far the most involved in antisemitic agendas, whereas young people are the ones most involved in today’s protests in Germany.
Following the ongoing protest in Germany and across Europe, Levi Salomon, a documentary maker on anti-Semitic slogans and acts in Berlin for 25 years, confirms that he had never seen such hatred against Jews in post-war Germany until the Hamas attack on October 7.
Salomon, who moved to Germany from Russia in 1991, described his fleeing as state-sponsored antisemitism.
He then began to compile anti-Semitic behaviour in 1997 and founded an association in 2008 that records, analyses, and publishes his research in Berlin.
In the post-World War II antisemitic situation in Germany, Salomon states, “October 7 marked a turning point”.
The level of hatred has reached such a high that celebrations of the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,400 Israelis in the first attack, have been observed in Berlin’s streets. The celebrations included the distribution of sweets and chants from the Arab population, such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a phrase that is symbolic of the destruction of the Jewish people.
Islamist slogans such as “the caliphate is the solution” were also used at protests in the western city of Essen. Salomon said he had never seen anything like this before.
The lives of Jews are again in jeopardy, as many believe that “European Jews today are again living in fear”. In Germany, where Holocaust denial is still illegal, some 2,000 cases linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict have been registered so far, the federal police told local media.
Due to the hostile situation in Berlin since the Hamas attack, German authorities boosted security around Jewish institutions. However, the security measures could not stop the two men from flinging Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Berlin.
Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the Domestic Intelligence Agency, has called this Germany’s “darkest hour”.
The German officials have thus come forward to address the situation in many ways. Vice-chancellor Robert Habeck made his plea on social media, urging people to fight antisemitism and calling the opposition’s movements an effort from the far-left political movements and certain Muslim groups.
The ongoing developments also address the great importance of Thursday’s commemoration of the 85th anniversary of the Kristallnacht ceremony, a progrom launched by Hitler’s Nazis that was executed overnight on November 9–10.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier are expected to lead the ceremony. The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, is also expected to join.
The poison of antisemitism and its existence in today’s Germany has changed the view of Jewish acceptance in the country for many. Many of the pro-Palestinian supporters believe themselves to be progressive. Nikolas Lelle noted the impression came mostly from the contingents of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights groups.
Germany’s post-war foreign and cultural policy has mostly focused on bridging the international respectability that was lost during the Nazi regime by seeking close ties with Israel and making gestures of atonement.
Given the present scenario of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the number of casualties on the Palestinian side, activists in Germany agreed to protest against the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, but the condemnation via slogans or posters for Hamas’s strike was nowhere found.
