Since the Hamas attack on Israel, the number of antisemitic incidents in Lower Saxony has been increasing. The Antisemitism Research and Information Center (RIAS) sees a “massive increase”.
Reports describing anti-Jewish attacks are documented almost every day, according to RIAS. When asked by NDR Lower Saxony, the reporting office does not currently want to publish current figures. These are outdated a short time later, as some incidents are only reported several days or weeks after the event, it said.
These reports would then have to be checked before they could be included in the statistics. At the beginning of the week, the RIAS reported to the German Press Agency (dpa) about at least 34 antisemitic incidents in Lower Saxony since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 9th.
Since 2021 it has been documenting RIAS antisemitic incidents in Lower Saxony. Incidents that do not constitute a criminal offense or are not reported are also taken into account. According to RIAS, the reported attacks vary widely in their execution. In addition, there were graffiti, posters or speeches with anti-Semitic content in various places in Lower Saxony. Anti-Jewish statements were made at several meetings. In Hanover, for example, a pro-Israel demonstrator was spat on and insulted with the Israel flag. Attacks on social media are also taking place more and more frequently. The RIAS speaks of so-called “othering” – when Jews are identified as such and stigmatized as “foreigners” or “the others”.
