Amendment to the Basic Law: if at all, then properly!
After the Bundesrat, the cabinet is discussing a possible amendment to the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) this week. Among other things, the term „race“ is to be deleted – but one should proceed with care when it comes to the replacement wording.
We welcome this initiative by the federal states of Hamburg and Thuringia and recommend taking up their impulse and carrying it one step further. We therefore propose developing the wording „racist motives“ suggested by the two federal states further and writing that „racist or antisemitic attributions“ must not lead to disadvantages.
This wording would raise and also make more precise the level of protection of Article 3 of the Basic Law. The wording currently intended does not correspond to the situation as perceived by Jews.
We Jews are as a rule less exposed to the hatred of „pure“ racists. We become the victims of antisemites, of Jew-haters. These mostly have a self-contained anti-Jewish world view in which conspiracy myths, political, historical and every conceivable other reason are cited in order to reject us and often, as a result, even to combat us.
This mixture of factors would best be met by the wording „racist or antisemitic attributions“, which can already be found in similar form in the Berlin state anti-discrimination act.
Elio Adler, the chairman of WerteInitiative, on this: „Antisemites build their entire world view on ascribing certain characteristics to Jews that legitimise their hatred of us. It is precisely this rumour-like quality, detached from reality, that is ideally expressed by the wording ‚attributions‘. It would be right and pioneering both professionally and politically.“
Antisemitism is precisely not racism, and much more than hatred of our religion, our faith or our origin. It is a „rumour about the Jews“ learned over the centuries. This is what has to be countered. That is why we regard the addition we are calling for as more than a purely political symbol, although even that alone would be justified: it would be a wording that corresponds to the state of antisemitism research and corresponds to our real experience.
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We would also point to the „Grundsatzerklärung Antisemitismus“ from 2018: https://werteinitiative.de/en/declaration-of-principles-on-antisemitism/. It was published by us together with a specialist organisation, was signed by many relevant Jewish organisations and political actors and, as can be seen further down on the website, found many supporters. Point 4 of it underlines our line of argument.
