German antisemitism and resentment towards Israel has
risen sharply in recent months, with more than one in four respondents in a new
poll equating the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi persecution
of Jews during World War Two.
The bi-annual survey on xenophobia in Germany by the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation showed broad measures of antisemitism on the decline over the past
decade.
But it also showed a spike in negative views towards Israel and Jews in
general between June and September, coinciding with the conflict between Israel
and Hamas militants in Gaza.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed during
the 50-day Gaza conflict. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians
died.
When asked in September, for example, whether they believed Jews,
because of their actions, were partly responsible for their own persecution, 18
percent of respondents agreed, up from less than 8 percent in June.
Just over 27 percent of those surveyed in September said they broadly or
fully agreed with the idea that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians was no
different than Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, when six million
Jews were murdered.
That survey result was still down significantly from 2004, when over 51
percent of respondents agreed with this statement.
One in five respondents, in the survey of 1,915 German citizens, said
Israel’s policies made Jews less likeable.
“The lines between antisemitism
and substantive criticism of Israel are becoming blurred and that is a
problem,” the Friedrich Ebert Foundation said in a statement.
The survey was released a week after German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned at a conference in Berlin that “hatred of
Jews” was on the rise in Germany and across Europe amid spiraling violence
in the Middle East.
During the height of the Gaza war this summer, Jews were attacked and
slogans like “Gas the Jews!” chanted at pro-Palestinian
demonstrations in Germany.
Petrol bombs were also thrown at a synagogue in the western city of
Wuppertal which had been burnt down on Kristallnacht – a Nazi attack on the
Jews in 1938 – and subsequently rebuilt.
