BKA reports massive increase in anti-Semitic crimes

Since Hamas’ attack on Israel, the BKA has registered more than 1,100 anti-Semitic crimes in Germany – a sharp increase compared to previous quarters. Israel’s Ambassador Prosor calls for a “wake up”.

Since the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7th, the number of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany has increased significantly. Between the day of the attack and December 21st alone, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recorded more than 1,100 offenses in the criminal police reporting service for cases of politically motivated crime, as the dpa news agency reports. The BKA said that this primarily involved damage to property and incitement to hatred.

The number is significantly higher than in each of the first three quarters of 2023 – according to figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 558 anti-Semitic offenses were registered in the first, 609 in the second and 540 in the third. This includes attacks motivated by left-wing and right-wing extremism as well as acts from the categories “religious ideology” and “foreign ideology”.

The more than 1,100 crimes since the beginning of October, however, are only those recorded in connection with the escalation of the Middle East conflict. The total number is likely to be significantly higher.

Added together, the figures available up to December 21st result in 2,807 recorded offenses so far this year. For comparison: 2,874 anti-Semitic crimes were registered in the entire year of 2022, including 88 violent acts.

“Conditions that are not normal”

In view of the noticeably growing anti-Semitism, Israel’s ambassador Ron Prosor is calling for a “wake up”. “The fact that Jews are afraid to go out on the streets with a yarmulke or speak on their cell phones in Hebrew, that simply cannot be true,” he told the dpa news agency. “People who are afraid to bring their children to school if the school is not protected: these are conditions that are not normal.”

Prosor emphasized that increasing anti-Semitism is not a purely German problem – “but in Germany it is even more important than elsewhere to change that,” he said. “When Molotov cocktails are thrown to set synagogues on fire, you can’t just respond with words, you have to do something practical.”

Danger for entire society

Prosor sees a key function in school education: Young people in particular are “strange” with Israel, so better education about Israel must be provided. Anti-Semitism is dangerous, regardless of whether it comes from the radical right, radical left or Muslim corner – and for society as a whole. At the same time, Prosor praised the actions of German security authorities against anti-Semitic attacks and the risk of terrorist attacks.

Minister of Education admonishes universities

Yesterday, Federal Education Minister Stark-Watzinger expressed alarm at the increasing number of anti-Semitic incidents at German universities. In the “Augsburger Allgemeine” she called for robust action by universities – “the exercise of house rules up to and including exmatriculation in particularly serious cases.”

The FDP politician complained that what was perhaps only thought and not lived before Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th is now showing itself very publicly – even in universities. In Germany, these ranked “after the street, social media and public buildings as the fourth place where anti-Semitic incidents are reported most.” Universities are places of social debate – “but anti-Semitism is not an opinion, but anti-Semitism is an expression of hatred and conspiracy theories.”