It is well known that the party “Die Linke”, especially at the federal level, has always had an anti-Semitism problem. Wagenknecht, Dehm, Buchholz, Dagdelen, Groth, Paech, Höger (to name just a few) have repeatedly sided with the anti-Jewish people.
Nevertheless, the Berlin regional association (with the exception of the Neukölln Left) has so far been seen as a stable partner in the fight against anti-Semitism. Petra Pau and Klaus Lederer, for example, have always stood by the Jewish community and Israel for decades. This has not been the case since last weekend.
Yom Kippur had just begun when the state party conference of the Berlin Left found itself unable to agree to this sentence:
»The fact that people in Berlin who see themselves as politically left-wing have relativized and sometimes even celebrated Hamas’s massacre of small children, families and festival visitors on October 7, 2023, or have called for the destruction of Israel, alarms us deeply. Leftists must never ignore the role of eliminationist anti-Semitism that drives the terror and strategies of actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their support from the Iranian mullahs’ regime. The hate propaganda of such actors who pose as ‘liberation movements’ is catching on here more than ever.”
Unless you are an apologist for Hamas or Hezbollah, how can you disagree with this sentence? The worst massacre of Jews since 1945 was celebrated on the streets of Berlin, and this wasn’t alarming? Anti-Semitism from the left doesn’t exist because obviously what shouldn’t exist can’t exist?
This fact alone, combined with the rejection of constitutional means (decided in the further debate) and consistent prosecution of anti-Semitic crimes, is a slap in the face, not only for all Jews, but for all Democrats. Apparently it is more important for the Berlin Left that anti-Jewish Hamas fans can let off steam on Berlin’s streets and spread hatred and violence.
It is just a question of decency to stand against it clearly and unequivocally.
When Maximilian Schirmer, head of the Berlin Left, says: “We as the Berlin Left stand firmly for the protection of Jewish life and oppose any form of anti-Semitism. We will continue to work for this and also have internal debates about it.” I am reminded of Ulbricht’s sentence: “Nobody has the intention of building a wall.”
A lot fell apart this weekend – in an already very fragile situation.
The author is the anti-Semitism representative of the Jewish community in Berlin.
