Germany’s anti-Semitism commissioner has condemned a recent rise in anti-Jewish violence in the country, warning it risks taking the country back to its “worst times”.
However, in an interview with The Guardian, Felix Klein said he was also worried about the erosion of basic rights as the authorities sought to clamp down on expressions of support for the Palestinian people.
The remarks come amid a debate that has raged across Europe, and particularly in Germany and France – home to the EU’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities – as officials struggle to contain the spread of tensions sparked by the war Israel- Hamas.
Klein, who became Germany’s first federal commissioner charged with fighting anti-Semitism in 2018, said many in the country were worried the situation would continue to worsen.
“People are shocked to hear news of houses where Jews live marked with the Star of David,” he says. “Because it takes us back to the worst times we’ve had in this country.”
German police responded to the rise in anti-Semitism by preemptively banning most rallies expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. Last week, education authorities in Berlin went further, telling schools they could ban students from wearing the Palestinian flag, the kuffiya scarf and “free Palestine” stickers.
Klein says he is among those concerned that the liberties of peaceful citizens are being curtailed. “That worries me, too. Because of course, demonstrating is a fundamental right.”
The debate, Klein added, was “very, very heated, very emotional.” “And of course, here in Germany, unlike other countries, we have this historical situation,” he added.
In recent weeks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to anti-Semitism, citing responsibility to Israel given Germany’s role as perpetrator of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed.
Scholz doubled down on his pledge in recent days after attackers threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in central Berlin and the Star of David was painted on the facades of several buildings housing Berlin’s Jews.
“Our history, our responsibility for the Holocaust makes it our duty at all times to defend the existence and security of Israel,” Scholz said.
In recent days, human rights activists have warned that pro-Palestinian voices have been silenced across the continent. “In many European countries, authorities are illegally restricting the right to protest,” Amnesty International’s Esther Major said in a statement. “Measures range from targeting certain chants, Palestinian flags and signs, to subjecting protesters to police brutality and arrests.”
Others said they were torn between expressing concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and risking their jobs or immigration status. “We are scared, we are worried about being accused of justifying terrorism when we just want to support a humanitarian cause,” one 20-year-old woman told Reuters as she joined others at a banned protest in Paris earlier this month.
Last week, France’s highest administrative court overturned a blanket ban on pro-Palestinian rallies, saying instead that permission should be granted on a case-by-case basis.
The court ruling paved the way for the first police-sanctioned rally in Paris on Sunday, with around 15,000 people taking to the streets to demand Israel halt its strikes on Gaza, which were launched in response to the brutal Hamas incursion. The rally came a day after a similar march in London drew around 100,000 people. Authorities described both marches as generally peaceful. Police say they have arrested 10 people in London.
About 7,000 people took part in a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration in Düsseldorf on Saturday, and police in Berlin banned a similar demonstration planned for Sunday.
Germany is already grappling with a rise in politically motivated crimes, including an almost 29% jump in anti-Semitic crimes in 2021. The majority of those 3,027 crimes – 2,552 – were attributed to far-right extremists.
Klein said he was not surprised by the increase. “History shows that with every crisis, anti-Semitism explodes,” he says, citing the COVID-19 crisis as an example. “It was clear that a scapegoat was going to be needed, and the most common or traditional form in Europe or even globally was then to have conspiracy theories and so-called anti-Semitic explanations.”
These theories and false explanations were then reinforced by social media and then embraced and expanded by far-right parties such as Alternative für Deutschland, he added.
However, the events of recent weeks have shifted the focus away from these root causes, causing concern among Muslims and Arabs about growing Islamophobia.
“The general suspicion that all Muslims are anti-Semitic doesn’t help at all,” says Klein. “It is unfortunate that a very small group of Hamas supporters and people who hate Israel are causing all these problems. Not all Muslims in Germany should be held hostage to this.”
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2023-10-24 19:45:00
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