Press review: Antisemitism in Germany
Europe lives a new wave of antisemitism. In France, a Shoah survivor, Mireille Knoll, was burned and killed. France showed its solidarity with a Marche Blanche and a request for more efficient laws against antisemitism. However, there was a political division: a Far-Left which doesn’t recognize properly the new antisemitism and a Far-Right haunted by its past on Shoah — Jean-Marie Le Pen, former Front National Chairman, declared death of Jews in concentration camps as Auschwitz was a detail.
But What about Germany ? Following an agression, last week, in Berlin against a Jew wearing a Kippa, the political world condemned the attack and called for a #BerlinträgtKippa (Berlin wears Kippa) demonstration as a sign of solidarity. On the other hand, a musical award ceremony was canceled because of a wave of antisemitism and, on the same time, Neo-Nazi movements were celebrating Hitler’s birthday.
To understand better the wave of antisemitism in Germany, there are some articles published recently about this. These articles come from German media.
1 — Antisemitism, a society issue
This article written by Jacques Schuster in Die Welt says the agression in Berlin was an antisemitic act. Schuster writes antisemitism must not be viewed as a Jewish issue, but as a society issue.
2 — Statistics about antisemitism in Germany
http://faktenfinder.tagesschau.de/hintergrund/antisemitismus-147.html
Taggeschau, ARD’s news channel, talks about the confidence in statistics about antisemitic acts. There is a debate on the inclusion of violence acts made by “Muslim groups” . Beyond the technical debate on the confidence in PMK (Criminal and Political motivated acts), German Police and Judicial authorities debate on the new means of antisemitic acts: it’s not only criminal acts with a big penalty, but also minor acts as we see with Berlin agression.
3 — Berlin demonstrations
2,000 Berlin-citizens demonstrate to protest against antisemitism with a motto: Berlin trägt Kippa — Berlin wears Kippa. Michael Müller, Mayor of Berlin, declared “Antisemitism has no place in our city”. Müller, from SPD, was joined by CDU Minister Kauder and Greens Özdemir. Also, representatives from religion participated in the demonstrations: Bishop Dröge, and President of Muslim Central Council Mazyek who was interviewed about the demonstrations by the same media: read here.
4 — Israeli issue on Bundestag
During a Bundestag plenum about the 70th anniversary of Israel, CDU, CSU, SPD, Greens and Die Linke (The Left) expressed their solidarity with Israel. Every Bundestag members wore Kippa. Dietmar Bartsch (Die Linke) declared: “Israel’s History is linked with Jewish History”. Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) said Germany is “Guarantor of Israel’s existence”. FDP called for a Two-State-Solution with Palestine as a Democratic State. Only Far-Right movement AfD criticized the Government policy: By financing UNRWA, “Bundestag is financing hatred of Jews”.
As a conclusion, the fight against antisemitism in Germany is not polarized from a political point of view: Left like Right support this fight, linking it with Israeli issue. On a religious point of view, faith leaders show a support for the Jewish cause as we see in Berlin. Although Echo award issue, Neo-Nazi celebration of Hitler’s birthday send a clear message: the fight is not over in Germany.
