The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany is on
the rise, Germany’s Tagesspiegel
newspaper reported.
The Tagesspiegel quoted a recent report, which noted
1,453 antisemitic incidents perpetrated in 2017, including 32 incidents of
physical violence, 160 incidents of vandalism, and 898 incidents of incitement
to violence or hate speech directed at Jews.
The findings have been presented to Bundestag Vice
President Petra Pau.
According to the Tagesspiegel, the number of antisemitic
incidents is not final and expected to rise, since several states have not sent
in their final statistics on antisemitism in 2017.
Most of the antisemitic incidents were due to extreme
right-wing motivations: 1,377 incidents – 95% – were perpetrated by people
holding extreme right-wing views. An additional 33 incidents were perpetrated
by non-Muslim foreign citizens who hold antisemitic views.
Twenty-five antisemitic incidents were perpetrated
“for religious reasons” by Muslims. Some of these Muslims are
migrants, and others were born in Germany. In the last 17 cases, authorities
did not succeed in identifying the motivation behind the antisemitic attack.
“I am very concerned about the statistics from the
past year,” Pau said. “It could be that the number of unreported
incidents is much higher, since many of the victims refuse to report the
attacks.”
