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Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany. [1]
In May 2016, a new definition of antisemitism (the Working Definition of Antisemitism) was agreed upon at the Berlin-based International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Conference, stating that "holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel" is antisemitic. [2]
In 1998, Ignatz Bubis, a leader of the German Jewish community, pointed to a "spreading intellectual nationalism" that made him fear a revival of German antisemitism. [3] Others point to Germany's growing Muslim population, both the Turkish "guest workers" who began to arrive in the 1950s, and the large wave of migrants from Muslim countries who arrived during the European migrant crisis that began in 2015. [4] [5] In 2002, the historian Julius Schoeps said that "resolutions by the German parliament to reject antisemitism are drivel of the worst kind" and "all those ineffective actions are presented to the world as a strong defense against the charge of antisemitism. The truth is: no one is really interested in these matters. No one really cares." [6]
A 2012 poll showed that 18% of the Turks in Germany think of Jews as inferior human beings. [7] [8] A similar study found that most of Germany's native born Muslim youth and children of immigrants have antisemitic views. [9]
In 2014, antisemitic activities in Germany prompted the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to lead a rally in Berlin against antisemitism in Germany. [10] In that same year, about 3,500 people rallied in front of the Frankfurt City Hall to protest against a wave of antisemitic incidents in Germany. A few hundred of the protesters were from the Kurdish-Israeli Friendship Association. According to the JTA, "Merkel expressed her support for the event in a letter." [11]
The number of crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions continued to increase in 2018. [12] In a 2018 survey conducted by the European Union, 85% of Jewish respondents in Germany said that antisemitism was a "very big" or "fairly big" issue, and 89% said that antisemitism had become a worse problem in the last five years. [1] In February 2019, crime data released by the government for 2018 and published in Der Tagesspiegel showed a yearly increase of 10%, with 1,646 crimes linked to a hatred of Jews in 2018, with the totals not finalised as yet. There was a 60% rise in physical attacks (62 violent incidents, vs 37 in 2017). Germany also reported a new record of cases linked to hatred of Jews in 2020, with 2,275 crimes with an antisemitic background until the end of January 2021. [13]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
In police statistics, more than 90 percent of incidents are counted as "right wing extremism". But government officials and Jewish leaders doubt that figure, because cases with unknown perpetrators and some kinds of attacks get automatically classified as "extreme right". [15]
A 2017 study on Jewish perspectives on antisemitism in Germany by Bielefeld University found that individuals and groups belonging to the extreme right and extreme left were equally represented as perpetrators of antisemitic harassment and assault, while the largest part of the attacks were committed by Muslim assailants. The study also found that 70% of the participants feared a rise in antisemitism due to immigration citing the antisemitic views of the refugees. [16]
A study among Jews, that was published by the European Union in 2018, has also listed Muslims as the biggest perpetrator group of antisemitic incidents in Germany; 41% of attacks were committed by extremist Muslims, 20% by far-right and 16% by far-left extremists, according to the study. [17]
In its 2017 summary, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) concluded that antisemitic rhetoric spread by Islamist organizations posed a significant challenge to a peaceful and tolerant society. [18]
In January 2017, a German court in the city of Wuppertal upheld the 2015 decision of a lower court which deemed an attempt by three Muslim attackers to burn down a synagogue in 2014 (on the anniversary of Kristallnacht) to be a means of "drawing attention to the Gaza conflict" with Israel, despite the fact that attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions as a result of the actions of the state of Israel amounts to collective punishment and a form of antisemitism. [2] The offenders were not sent to prison. [2]
The German regional court ruled that the actions of the three perpetrators were governed by anti-Israelism and not antisemitism, while the attackers received suspended sentences. [2] Green Party MP Volker Beck protested the ruling, saying: "This is a decision as far as the motives of the perpetrators are concerned. What do Jews in Germany have to do with the Middle East conflict? Every bit as much as Christians, non-religious people or Muslims in Germany, namely, absolutely nothing. The ignorance of the judiciary toward antisemitism is for many Jews in Germany especially alarming." [2]
Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), said: "It is unbelievable that attempts to burn a synagogue have been equated with displeasure of Israeli government policies." [2] "This has now given a carte blanche to antisemites across Germany to attack Jews because a German court has given them a ready justification." [2]
In 2018, an Israeli Arab was attempting to win an argument with a Jewish friend by proving that he could walk freely through Berlin wearing a Jewish skullcap. However, he was attacked by a group of Arabic-speaking men. The incident had been recorded and the video went viral. [19] [20] [21]
In 2018, the Echo Music Prize was awarded to rappers who featured antisemitic clichés in their lyrics. As a consequence of protests from artists and the press, the Echo Award was discontinued. [22]
On October 9, 2019, a lone gunman attacked a synagogue in Halle during Yom Kippur but failed to gain access to the building, although two doors were damaged when improvised explosives set off. Later the attacker shot dead a female pedestrian in the street and a man at a nearby Turkish kebab shop. [23]
In September 2021, German police averted a possible Islamic attack on a synagogue in Hagen during Yom Kippur services, arresting four people including a 16-year-old Syrian youth. [24]
During an April 2023 pro-Palestine protest, observers recorded numerous antisemitic chants, including "Death to the Jews". [25] [26] The Berlin Police have confirmed they are investigating charges of Volksverhetzung ; [25] two pro-Palestine demonstrations planned for the following weekend were cancelled. [27]
In October 2023, a Berlin synagogue was firebombed with molotovs in response to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war by two masked men. [28]
On 2 February 2024 a Pro-Palestinian college student in Berlin assaulted a Jewish classmate until he was hospitalized after an argument about the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to the Police the Jewish student was punched in the face until he fell to the ground after which was he was kicked while lying on the ground before the attackers fled the scene. The victim suffered non-fatal facial fractures while the attacker was arrested by the police. [29] According to the Jewish Independent on the 21.05.2024, Jewish parents from other suburbs of Berlin have started enrolling their kids in the Jewish school in Mitte, Berlin. These parents are registered in the schools closest to where they live, but they passed up the automatic registration for their children's local high school in favour of sending them to a school far from their place of residence, because it is protected by an Israeli guard, German policemen and a wall around it. There are usually no guards at Berlin schools.
Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.
Scholars have studied and debated Muslim attitudes towards Jews, as well as the treatment of Jews in Islamic thought and societies throughout the history of Islam. Parts of the Islamic literary sources give mention to certain Jewish groups present in the past or present, which has led to debates. Some of this overlaps with Islamic remarks on non-Muslim religious groups in general.
Anti-German is the generic name applied to a variety of theoretical and political tendencies within the left mainly in Germany and Austria. The Anti-Germans form one of the main camps within the broader Antifa movement, alongside the Anti-Zionist anti-imperialists, after the two currents split between the 1990s and the early 2000s as a result of their diverging views on Israel. The anti-Germans are a fringe movement within the German left: In 2006 Deutsche Welle estimated the number of anti-Germans to be between 500 and 3,000. The basic standpoint of the anti-Germans includes opposition to German nationalism, a critique of mainstream left anti-capitalist views, which are thought to be simplistic and structurally antisemitic, and a critique of antisemitism, which is considered to be deeply rooted in German cultural history. As a result of this analysis of antisemitism, support for Israel and opposition to Anti-Zionism is a primary unifying factor of the anti-German movement. The critical theory of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is often cited by anti-German theorists.
New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s.
Matthias Küntzel, is a German political scientist and historian. He was an external research associate at the Vidal Sassoon Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 2004 to 2015. Currently, he is a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations DGAP, of the German Historical Association (VHD), of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa ASMEA and of the advisory board of UANI.
This is a list of countries where antisemitic sentiment has been experienced.
Antisemitism in contemporary Norway deals with antisemitic incidents and attitudes encountered by Jews, either individually or collectively, in Norway since World War II. The mainstream Norwegian political environment has strongly adopted a platform that rejects antisemitism. However, individuals may privately hold antisemitic views. Currently, there are about 1,400 Jews in Norway, in a population of 5.3 million.
Antisemitism—prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews—has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents.
Antisemitic incidents escalated worldwide in frequency and intensity during the Gaza War, and were widely considered to be a wave of reprisal attacks in response to the conflict.
The Jewish community in Sweden has been prevalent since the 18th century. Today Sweden has a Jewish community of around 20,000, which makes it the 7th largest in the European Union. Antisemitism in historical Sweden primarily manifested as the confiscation of property, restrictions on movement and employment, and forced conversion to Christianity. Antisemitism in present-day Sweden is mainly perpetrated by far-right politicians, neo-Nazis, and Islamists.
Antisemitism in Pakistan is the presence of hostility and discrimination against Jews in Pakistan based on prejudices against the Jewish people and/or the religion of Judaism. Alongside the prevalence of general stereotypes, Jews are commonly subjected to negative views, feelings and rhetoric in Pakistan, most of which overlap with and are directly related to the antisemitic views prevalent throughout the Islamic world. Widely regarded as miserly within Pakistani Muslim circles, Jews residing in Pakistan have also faced periodic intolerance by the state, which has intensified since the Islamization period of the 1980s under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who propelled Pakistan towards the adoption of strict and highly-conservative Islamic practices and laws. The Jewish population of Pakistan has rapidly decreased since the state's founding and separation from neighbouring India in August 1947, and as of 2019 estimates, stands at less than 200 people amidst Pakistan's total population of over 200 million, the majority of whom are Muslims.
Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.
Since World War II, antisemitic prejudice in Italy has seldom taken on aggressive forms.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290.
On Sunday, 20 July 2014, a pro-Palestinian protest against the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza degenerated into an antisemitic riot in Sarcelles, France. An illegal demonstration gathered about 500 persons, without incident, but the riots broke out quickly after the dispersion of the demonstration, starting with 50 protesters provoking the police and eventually involving up 300 people according to the report of the riot police. Jewish-owned businesses and non-Jewish owned businesses were attacked and looted by local youths armed with metal bars and wooden clubs. Members of La Ligue de défense juive were present in Sarcelles, and attempted to defend a synagogue by forming a line in front of it and holding motor-cycle helmets as weapons. Palestinian groups accused the League of provoking the attack by taunting demonstrators and throwing projectiles.
Antisemitism in Australia is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Australian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Australia's Jewish community was established in the 18th century. There are a number of organisations that track antisemitic activities, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, that publish an annual list of all reported antisemitic activities. Antisemitism in Australia is perpetrated by a variety of group, and it has manifested in the publication of antisemitic publications, in efforts to prevent Jewish immigration, and in attacks on Australian Jews and their communal institutions.
Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.
The 2018 Berlin antisemitic attack was an attack on a street in the German capital of Berlin. Two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps were insulted by Arabic-speaking passers-by. One of the two, an Arab Israeli citizen, was beaten with a belt by a Palestinian attacker. Video footage led to public outrage.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, there has been a surge of antisemitism around the world. Israeli Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer has stated that Israel is bracing to expect a large wave of Jews migrating to Israel due to the rising antisemitism around the world.
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