The coronavirus pandemic, the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip have led to an increase in public anti-Semitism in Germany in recent years, Germany’s domestic intelligence service BfV wrote in a new report released on Monday.
Anti-Semitism is an issue across ideological boundaries and in different scenes, the agency reported, but “the greatest anti-Semitic threat in Germany [remains] the intertwining of right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism”.
“With the outbreak of the Gaza war and associated demonstrations, it was striking that extremists who were otherwise rather reserved concerning anti-Semitism now expressed themselves far more openly anti-Semitic”, the report stated. “Extremists of all kinds are exploiting the war in the Middle East and using anti-Semitism for their agenda”.
The agency also noted that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories were widely spread during the pandemic, and were echoed not only by extremists but also by more mainstream figures. The intelligence agency said German left-wing extremists remain divided when it comes to anti-Semitism, and are also split over Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza.
The denial of Israel’s right to exist and anti-Semitism form a “common frame of reference, which also has a direct impact on the security situation in Europe and Germany”, despite the ideological differences between the Islamic State (IS) terrorist network and its offshoots and Hamas, which emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Calls for violence from IS and al-Qaida can also be found in the German-speaking jihadist scene. The potential danger of terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions, as well as against “the West” as a whole, has increased significantly as a result, according to the report.
Source: Qantara
