Germany’s antisemitism commissioner has condemned the country’s recent increase in anti-Jewish violence, warning that it risks transporting the country back to its “most horrific times”.
In an interview with the Guardian, however, Felix Klein said he was also worried about an erosion of basic rights as officials sought to crack down on expressions of support for the Palestinian people.
The remarks tap into a debate that has played out across Europe, and in particular in Germany and France – home to the EU’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities – as officials scramble to contain the spillover of tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.
Klein, who became Germany’s first federal commissioner tasked with battling antisemitism in 2018, said many in the country were worried that the situation would continue to deteriorate.
“People are shocked to hear news of houses where Jews live being marked with a Star of David,” he said. “Because that, of course, rings a bell and brings us back to the most horrific times we had in this country.”
German police have responded to a rise in antisemitism by pre-emptively banning most rallies expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. Last week education authorities in Berlin went further, telling schools that they could ban students from wearing the Palestinian flag, kufiya scarf and “free Palestine” stickers.
Klein said he was among those who were concerned that the freedoms of peaceful protesters were being curtailed. “It is worrying me too,” he said. “Because of course demonstrating is a basic right.”
The debate, said Klein, was “very, very heated up, very emotional”. “And of course, here [in Germany], unlike in other countries, we have this historical situation,” he added.
Recent weeks have seen Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, vow to take a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism, citing the responsibility towards Israel given Germany’s role as the perpetrator of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were murdered.
In recent days Scholz has doubled down on the pledge, after assailants hurled two molotov cocktails at a synagogue in central Berlin and the Star of David was found daubed on the facades of several buildings where Jews live in Berlin.
“Our history, our responsibility for the Holocaust makes it our duty in every moment to stand for the existence and security of Israel,” said Scholz.
In recent days rights campaigners have warned that pro-Palestinian voices were being muted across the continent. “In many European countries, the authorities are unlawfully restricting the right to protest,” said Esther Major of Amnesty International in a statement. “Measures range from those targeting certain chants, Palestinian flags and signs, to subjecting protesters to police brutality and arrest.”
Others have spoken out over being torn between expressing concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and risking their job 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 told Reuters as she joined others at a banned protest in Paris earlier this month.
Last week France’s highest administrative court struck down a blanket ban on pro-Palestinian rallies, saying instead that permission should be decided case by case.
Photograph: Stevens Tomas/ABACA/Shutterstock
The court’s decision paved the way for Paris’s first police-approved rally on Sunday, with an estimated 15,000 people taking to the streets to demand Israel halted its strikes on Gaza which was launched in response to Hamas’s brutal incursion. The rally came the day after a similar march in London attracted about 100,000 people. Authorities described both marches as generally peaceful. Police said they had arrested 10 people in London.
About 7,000 people took part in a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration in Düsseldorf on Saturday, but police in Berlin banned a similar demonstration planned for Sunday.
Germany was already grappling with a rise in politically motivated crimes, including a near-29% jump in antisemitic crimes in 2021. The vast majority of these 3,027 offences – 2,552 – were attributed to far-right extremists.
Klein said he was not surprised by the increase. “History has shown that in any crisis, antisemitism explodes,” he said. He pointed to the Covid-19 crisis as an example. “It was clear that a scapegoat would have been necessary, and the most common or traditional form in Europe or even worldwide is then to have conspiracy theories and antisemitic so-called explanations.”
These theories and false explanations were then heightened by social media and then embraced and amplified by far-right parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland, he added.
The events of the recent weeks, however, have shifted the focus away from these root causes, sparking concerns among Muslims and Arabs of rising Islamophobia.
“A general suspicion that all Muslims are antisemites doesn’t help at all,” said Klein. “It’s unfortunate that it’s a very small group of Hamas supporters and people that are hating Israel that cause all this trouble. Not all Muslims in Germany should be taken hostage for that.”
