What happened today in numerous places in Germany was unfortunately foreseeable. In Berlin, stones were thrown at police officers from an Israel-hate demonstration; in Hanover, water cannon had to be deployed to prevent Jew-haters from spilling over onto a pro-Israel demonstration. We Jewish women and men are currently experiencing a wave of hatred such as we have not seen for a long time. Israeli flags are burned in front of synagogues, our houses of G‘d are pelted with stones, and raging mobs, with apparently mostly Muslim participants, are once again chanting slogans on German streets such as “shitty Jew”. Added to this is an immoderately aggressive mood against Jewish women and men as well as against Israel on social media.
The right to freedom of assembly is a high constitutional good. It is abused, however, when, instead of political protest, pure hatred of Jews is carried onto our streets. It is unacceptable that we Jewish women and men are endangered in our security and have to live in fear; it is unacceptable that we have to hear things which during the Shoah led to the systematic annihilation of European Jewry.
And it is unacceptable that these outrages are also perpetrated by people who themselves came to us seeking protection from majority-Muslim countries, or by those who, with a family history of migration, have been unable to overcome antisemitic resentments. They often carry within them massively anti-Israel images which frequently go much further than legitimate criticism of Israeli policy would allow. The essence of it is that these are mostly antisemitic attitudes. We also point out that the antisemitic and largest right-wing extremist organisation in Germany, the Turkish Grey Wolves, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is listed as a terrorist organisation in the EU, together with its front organisations, were represented at the demonstrations.
This shows that, alongside the hatred of Jews of right-wing extremists of German descent and antisemitic images in the middle of society, we have a major task in the Muslim and migrant community. Integration and respect for the Grundgesetz also mean freeing oneself from learned and instilled antisemitic attitudes and finding a way to living together.
On this, our chairman Dr Elio Adler says: “Anyone who believes that these marchers have ‘only’ a hatred of Jewish women and men is completely naive. These people despise our free and democratic society with its colourful diversity just as much. It should therefore be in the majority society’s very own interest to oppose them unmistakably.”
Because of these developments we are more than worried. Also in order to express our solidarity with the citizens of Israel, we have registered a demonstration for next Thursday, 20.05.2021 at 19:00, on Pariser Platz in Berlin, for a broad solidarity alliance of many organisations. We hope for numerous support.
https://werteinitiative.de/en/rally-of-the-israel-solidarity-alliance/
