7 October 2023 made visible a new dimension of openly articulated antisemitism in Germany: on German streets and squares it was not only Israeli policy that was criticised – the State of Israel’s right to exist was fundamentally called into question and its elimination demanded. For Jewish communities and organisations this is not an abstract foreign-policy debate – the delegitimisation of Israel affects them directly. Current criminal law offers no reliable protection against it: the ruling of the Oberverwaltungsgericht Münster of 21 November 2025 made clear that denying Israel’s right to exist does not in itself fulfil the elements of a criminal offence.
WerteInitiative therefore proposes a new criminal offence. Public calls for the elimination of the State of Israel and the public denial of its right to exist should be punishable. Systematically, the offence should be anchored in § 130 of the Strafgesetzbuch and thus among the offences against public order – for the delegitimisation of Israel is also indirectly directed against the Jews living here and disturbs the public peace in Germany.
For constitutional reasons the paper recommends a general formulation that emphasises public peace as the protected interest: punishable would be anyone who, in a manner capable of disturbing the public peace, calls for the destruction of a state with which the Federal Republic of Germany maintains diplomatic relations. Antisemitic motives can be taken into account in sentencing under § 46 (2) of the Strafgesetzbuch.