germany 2009

 

There are more than 200,000 Jews in Germany, out of a total population of 82.5 million. The largest Jewish centers are Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg.

Antisemitic manifestations increased during Operation Cast Lead, when activists from the extreme right, the extreme left and Islamic fundamentalists took part in many virulently anti-Israel demonstrations (see General Analysis 2009). The official total of 1,520 for 2009, released by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, indicates a slight increase in the overall number of antisemitic manifestations, albeit a significant decrease in violent acts against Jews. This figure does not necessarily include the almost weekly desecrations of Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials all over Germany, which for the most are recorded not as antisemitic crimes but as "vandalism.”[1]

On December 4, 2009, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG), University of Bielefeld, presented the findings of a survey which measured group focused enmity (Gruppenbezogene Menschenfeindlichkeit) annually from 2002. Antisemitism constitutes one of the ten elements of this phenomenon. In 2009, 16.5 percent of those polled fully or partially agreed with the statement, "Jews have too much influence in Germany" compared to 21.6 percent in 2002, while 10.9 percent fully or partly agreed with the statement, "Jews are also responsible for their own persecution" (2002: 16.6 percent). While these findings show a decrease of “classic” antisemitism, over the last seven years there has been a steady rise in anti-Zionism and/or extreme anti-Israel attitudes which appear to have partly replaced traditional antisemitic tropes. In his study, "The ‘New’ Anti-Semitism in Contemporary German Academia,"[2] Yves Pallade claims that in contrast to "traditional" antisemitism, the new antisemitism − anti-Zionist rhetoric tainted by antisemitic thinking − has become socially acceptable (gesellschaftsfaehig). Stressing that the new antisemitism is a phenomenon found especially in so-called politically correct academia, Pallade criticizes the reluctance of decision-makers and opinion leaders to confront the problem.

Earlier, a conference at the University of Jena, entitled "Modern Antisemitism in Germany – A Phenomenon of the Center?" discussed the notion that antisemitic tendencies, frequently disguised as anti-Zionist rhetoric (principally focusing on the nazificaton of the Jewish state), tend to be found not on the social fringes but in the center. The attempt by left-wing activists to cancel a showing in Germany of Claude Lanzmann's (director of Shoah) film Pourquoi Israel (Why Israel) in October 2009 by setting up an imitation Israeli checkpoint and shouting slogans such as Judenschweine (Jewish pigs) is just one example out of hundreds that serves to demonstrate this idea (see General Analysis 2009): They call it anti-Zionism, said Lanzmann, but it is antisemitism.

Moreover, it is not Israeli policies that seem to be in the center of what may be legitimate criticism but the very existence of Israel. Such continuous propaganda and its acceptability in mainstream Germany has probably encouraged the drastic rise in antisemitic manifestations, albeit most of them verbal, as noted during Operation Cast Lead (see General Analysis 2008/9). Thus, although there was a certain decrease in antisemitic violence in 2009, Jews in Germany reported an increased sense of insecurity.[3] Many slogans shouted or displayed during the demonstrations in January 2009 bore bluntly antisemitic messages, mostly referring to the Holocaust. Placards showing the swastika entwined with the Star of David were visible on streets throughout the country. For example, during a 5,000-strong anti-Israel demonstration in Mainz on January 10, 2009 during Operation Cast Lead, organized by the then unknown Mainz Initiative for Peace in Gaza (supported by Muslim organizations − http://www.fr-online.de/rhein-main/spezials/aerger-um-israel-fahne/-/1472874/2860042/-/index.html), many protesters carried signs with slogans such as "Should Gaza become Auschwitz?" and "Israel drinks the blood of our children." After a small group of people waving an Israeli flag complained that they had been attacked by protestors who shouted insults such as Ihr Judenschweine (You Jewish pigs), the police determined that the flag was a provocation. At a demonstration four days earlier in Berlin, demonstrators carried signs such as "Death to Israel" or "Kick out the Jews.” Similar violent anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents were recorded during demonstrations throughout Germany.

Against the background of rising antisemitic tendencies among Muslim immigrants, a panel discussion was held in Berlin, on February 23, 2009, during which the Amadeu Antonio Foundation (AAS) (see http://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/eng/about-us/) presented their latest study, Die Juden sind Schuld. Antisemitismus in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft am Beispiel muslimisch sozialisierter Mileus (The Jews are guilty: Antisemitism in immigrant communities using the example of Muslim socialized milieus). The panel discussion was based on the findings of the 2007 survey “Muslims in Germany,” conducted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior among Turkish Muslims, which found that Muslim pupils had above-average tendencies toward antisemitic prejudices.

Heinz Fromm, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt fuer Verfassungschutz), pointed toward ideological similarities between neo-Nazis and extremist Muslim immigrants in Germany. According to Fromm, right-wing extremists and Islamists share "a common concept of the enemy: Israel and the Jews overall." In contrast, Aiman Mazyek, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, stressed that the majority of Muslims in Germany know that there is "no space for antisemitism in Islam." In 2009, 29 radical Islamist organizations with 36,000 members, (more than 30,000 of Turkish origin), an increase of about 5 percent were registered in Germany. (The federal interior ministry put the number of Muslims in 2007 at 3.1−3.4 million, one million with German citizenship.)

Both the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and the scientific journal Focus Schule pointed to a rise in antisemitism among Muslim children and teenagers: 15.7 percent of youngsters with a Muslim background agreed with the statement, “Jews are greedy and arrogant.”

Right-wing extremism still poses an increasing threat to the constitutional state. A survey among 45,000 ninth-graders, conducted in March 2009 by the Criminal Research Center in Hanover, and published in a study called "Youth as Victims and Perpetrators of Violence," showed that 6.4 percent held antisemitic views. The survey, in which about 45,000 pupils were interviewed, revealed that 14 percent of German teenagers thought that Jews deserved the Holocaust and one in 20 boys belonged to far-right groups.

According to a poll published in October 2009 by Der Spiegel, 13 percent of students at army academies in Hamburg and Munich agreed with the political aims of the "new rightists" and were sympathetic toward their ideas. They believed the "national identity of Germany" was threatened by the many foreigners living in the country. They also wanted a Germany led by an elite and had doubts about the German parliamentary system.

In 2009, 195 (2008: 156) extreme right-wing organizations and groups with a membership of 30,000 were active in Germany. This number includes members of the two racist, antisemitic and revisionist extreme right parties under observation by the state authorities, the NPD (German National Democratic Party; 6,800 members) and the DVU (German Peoples’ Union; 4,500 members) (see ASW 2006). About 9,000 persons were categorized in 2009 by the police authorities as being ready to use violence.

The NPD is the most influential and active extreme right party in Germany. Lately, the party has been trying to present itself as less threatening and more mainstream, by getting involved in sports groups, youth centers and other community organizations. The advance of women in the ranks is also helping to change its image. (For further information on the modus operandi of the extreme right in Germany, see ASW 2008.)

Since the 1990s the number of extreme right-wing women – those who advocate motherhood as well as those who combat patriarchy and political ignorance among women – has been rising steadily. In addition, a new and disturbing phenomenon detected by anti-fascists is the attempt to indoctrinate young children by teachers and guides, especially in the former communist East, which continues to grapple with a strong neo-Nazi presence.

The government of the east German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania took the unusual step of ordering anyone setting up a children's day-care center to pledge their support for Germany's democratic constitution. The move followed a number of cases in which neo-Nazis had tried to take over the running of a kindergarten, influence teaching in nurseries or get recruited as teachers (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,716006,00.html).

The number of German right-wing extremist postings to internet platforms aimed at school children or music fans − Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social networking tools like SchülerVZ, StudiVZ, MeinVZ, Wer-kennt-wen oder StayFriends − escalated from 750 in 2007 to about 6,000 in 2009. This number could reach the tens of thousands with further monitoring, observed Stefan Glaser, responsible for publishing data on right-wing extremism on the website jugendschutz.net.

Right-wing extremists disguise their material on mainstream social networks in order to attract the unsuspecting. A CD, for example, with radically antisemitic lyrics was marketed online as "Merkel's Bedtime Stories for Children aged 3-8." The CD, adorned with the image of German chancellor Angela Merkel and containing 21 songs, denied the Holocaust and called for the murder of blacks and Jews.

 

  http://forum.thiazi.net/showthread.php?p=1873529

 

After operators of Web 2.0 platforms began excluding clearly extreme right-wing users, the latter founded their own communities on the net for like-minded people. The number of neo-Nazi websites in Germany rose by 800 in the past year, bringing the total number to 1,872.

Despite a decrease of violent antisemitic crimes perpetrated by extreme rightists, from 44 in 2008 to 31 to 2009, the total number of criminal antisemitic acts motivated by ultra-right ideology rose from 1,496 to 1,520 (+1.6 percent). In Berlin alone the police registered 242 antisemitic offenses, compared to 197 in 2008. As a consequence, federal minister of the interior Wolfgang Schaeuble announced in August the formation of a panel which is mandated to make recommendations to combat antisemitism. The panel, which is to report to the government on a regular basis, is composed of experts from a variety of backgrounds – both Jewish and non-Jewish.