“It’s pure hatred.” Talya Lador-Fresher is the Israeli consul general in Munich. A suspected Islamist armed with a rifle carried out a terrorist attack on the consulate building on September 5th. In May, someone threw a bottle over the security fence – with a bullet in it. A threat? Since October 7th, threats and insults have been part of everyday life for the consul general and her team. They have now received hundreds of anti-Semitic comments and messages.
The Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center (Rias) Bavaria has registered a total of 527 cases of Israel-related hatred of Jews since the murderous terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on the Jewish state. In the first six months. The wave has not subsided since then, says director Annette Seidel-Arpacı. But Rias can hardly keep up with documenting the reported cases.
This will probably not change around the anniversary of the terrorist attack – on the contrary. The number of anti-Semitic incidents increases with almost every rally. The Rias leader can only remember one pro-Palestinian vigil where this was not the case. A total of 127 meetings across Bavaria have been documented for the period up to April, at which anti-Jewish slogans were heard under the pretext of “criticism of Israel”.
At the presentation of the figures on Monday morning in the Munich press club, someone wants to know where anti-Semitism begins and criticism of Israel ends. Actually, with the term “criticism of Israel,” because hardly any comparable word made it into the dictionary, says Seidel-Arpacı. But if double standards apply with regard to Israel, if the Jewish state is delegitimized or even demonized – then experts speak of Israel-related anti-Semitism, which no longer has anything to do with legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s policies. Or as the historian and journalist Michael Wolffsohn puts it: “People come and go, anti-Semitism remains.”
It sounds bitter when Wolffsohn comments on the Rias numbers with the insight that unquestioned, normal Jewish life is only possible in the Jewish state. That’s a description, he says when asked – and then adds: “If you like: Yes, that’s an appeal.” As important as all the efforts against anti-Semitism in Germany are, in the end they are apparently “completely in vain.” Jewish life outside of Israel is “existence upon revocation.”
In a 140-page brochure, Rias documented cases of Israel-related anti-Semitism in Bavaria since October 7th. Many of them were previously unknown. For example, on February 15, the speech of a Jewish CEO of a US software company in the auditorium of the Technical University of Munich was disrupted by pro-Palestinian activists. Or the shouts of “Khaybar khaybar ya yahud” on October 13th in downtown Munich, which refer to a historic massacre of Jews in an Arabian desert oasis.
“Verbal violence leads to murderous attacks,” says Bavaria’s Social Minister Ulrike Scharf
While an average of seven such incidents per month were reported to Rias before October 7th, the number jumped to 88 cases per month after that. This increase did not just begin with the Israeli military action in Gaza, says Seidel-Arpacı. But immediately after the Hamas attack became known. In the first six months, five direct attacks, twelve targeted damage to property, 19 threats, eleven mass messages and 480 cases that were assessed as “hurtful behavior” were registered.
So slogans, insults, agitation. “Verbal violence leads to murderous attacks,” said Bavaria’s Social Minister Ulrike Scharf on Monday about the “monstrous numbers.” These should be “more than a warning sign,” said the CSU politician, referring to the attempted attack in Munich on September 5th. “Now the hour of repression has struck,” said Ulrich Fritz, an employee in the office of the Bavarian Commissioner against Anti-Semitism, Ludwig Spaenle.
Shortly before the presentation of the Rias figures, the Munich group “Palestine Speaks” published a post on Instagram in which the “second intifada,” which was characterized by suicide attacks, was romanticized as a “willingness to sacrifice” and the state of Israel was delegitimized as a “Zionist entity.” A rally by the same group on Saturday afternoon in downtown Munich was headlined “Stop Zionist Terror.” Zionism, it said, was a colonial project to secure white supremacy. What was meant was the state of Israel.