Anti-Zionist hate is tantamount to antisemitism German court rules



The placard reads ‘Child murder, Israel. Israel bombed with our taxes.’

Court in Germany confirms that calling ‘death and hate to Zionists’ during a demonstration is tantamount to antisemitism

According to Sacha Stawski, president of Honestly Concerned, last summer’s demonstrations in Germany were “filled with hate — antisemitic hate, which hid behind the ‘facade’ of supposed ‘criticism’ of Zionism and of Israel.”

By European Jewish Press
Thursday, 28 May 2015 11:35

BERLIN —An appeals court in Germany upheld an earlier verdict that calling “death and hate to Zionists” during a demonstration is tantamount to antisemitism. The verdict was made in the case against Taylor Can, a German of Turkish origin, who argued that his chants at an anti-Israel demonstration in Essen last summer during Operation Protecttive Edge were ‘’purely political’’. In court, Can said he had “nothing against Jews, just against Zionists.”’

‘This is an absolute milestone in an otherwise very upsetting setting,’ said Sacha Stawski, founder and president of the German pro-Israel media watchdog Honestly Concerned. He stressed that last summer’s demonstrations in Germany were ‘filled with hate — antisemitic hate, which hid behind the ‘facade’ of supposed “criticism” of Zionism and of Israel.” He added: ‘The judges in this case very correctly came to the conclusion that criticism is absolutely acceptable; but what we saw had nothing to do with voicing concern over the defensive measures of the Israeli army.’


‘Palestinians demonstrate on July 12 in the centre of Frankfurt against Israel [the war on Gaza] under the slogan “Free Palestine”. The banner reads, in English, ‘Yesterday Dresden, Today Gaza’. Photo by Rolf Oeser



Although Washington Post’s caption reads “People hold a banner during a protest in central Berlin denouncing Israeli military actions in Gaza. The banner reads “Stop the Israeli War in Gaza!” their headline is Anti-Jewish slogans return to the streets in Germany as Mideast protests sweep Europe. Presumably the antisemitic slogans were shouted rather than displayed. Photo by Thomas Peters / Reuters

Shouts of “Jude! Jude!” in anti-Israel street protests in Germany

From Dialog International, German-American opinion
July 23, 2014

Seventy years after the mass murder of Jews at the hands of Nazis the following chant could be heard at “Pro-Palestinian” demonstrations on the streets of Berlin, Frankfurt and other German cities:

“Jude, Jude, feiges Schwein, komm heraus und kämpf allein!” [‘Cowardly pig, come out and fight on your own’]


Berlin demonstration, July 28, 2014. If anyone can read the handwritten placard at the back beginning with the word Juden, please inform postings@jfjfp.org

ABC News reports even worse:

BERLIN (AP) — The leader of Germany’s Jewish community says he is shocked by an “explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews” shown by protesters at pro-Gaza demonstrations across the country The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said Monday that “we would have never in our lives have expected that anti-Semitic slogans of the worst and most primitive kind could be chanted on Germany’s streets.”

Since the outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza, there have been demonstrations both for and against Israel in Germany. During some of those protests, pro-Gaza protesters have chanted “gas the Jews” and other anti-Semitic slogans.

At a pro-Gaza protest in Berlin last week, an Israeli tourist was verbally attacked and had to be protected by police.

 


Participants protest against continued violence in Gaza at a demonstration organized by left-wing activists on July 24, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. At least 730 Palestinians and 34 Israelis have been killed since the offensive between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip began 17 days ago. One day prior to the demonstration, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted for the launching of an investigation into potential violations of human rights during the conflict. Photo by Adam Berry.

Who are these demonstrators, protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza? For the most part, it appears to be an unholy alliance of Islamists, Neo-Nazis, and Leftists. The outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza has been a convenient excuse to allow for the latent anti-Semitism to explode in the open:

Die Parolen, die derzeit auf deutschen Straßen zu hören sind, kennzeichnen eine neue Dimension antisemitischen Hasses. Der latent immer vorhandene Antisemitismus (Forscher sehen ihn bei 20 bis 25 Prozent der deutschen Bevölkerung), bricht sich zwar bei einer Minderheit, aber so aggressiv und offen Bahn wie vielleicht nie in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik.

(The slogans that we can hear in German streets today indicate a new dimension of anti-Semitic hate. The latent anti-Semitism (researchers estimate 20 to 25% of the German population is anti-Semitic) has broken into the open in a minority, but not to such an extreme perhaps in the history of the Federal Republic.)

How ironic that neo-Nazis are coming together with Muslim extremists to make common cause. Usually, the NPD describes the Muslims in Germany as an alien bacillus, infecting the pure German Volk. But when it comes to vocally hating Jews, Muslims and neo-Nazis are bosom-buddies.

And the leftist pro-Gaza demonstrators? For two years Bashar al-Assad has been slaughtering tens of thousands of Arab citizens of Syria and not one protest from Die LINKE or other left-wing group. Why the solidarity with Palestine but indifference to Syria? Sybille Berg made this observation in her recent column in Der Spiegel:

Die Linke, falls es so etwas heute noch gibt, … werden den Juden nie verzeihen, dass sie keine Opfer mehr sein wollen.

(The Left, insofar as something like it exists today, can never forgive the Jews for refusing to be victims any longer.)


Anti-Jewish slogans return to the streets in Germany as Mideast protests sweep Europe

By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post
July 30, 2014

EXTRACT
BERLIN — Before the start of a pro-Palestinian rally — one of the scores being staged almost daily here since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza — an organizer on a bullhorn yelled out the do’s and don’ts as ordered last week by the Berlin police.

No burning the Israeli flag. No shouts of “Death to Israel.” And absolutely no repeating the slogan “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone” — a rhyming chant in German that had become increasingly common at pro-Palestinian rallies here before being nipped in the bud by German authorities.

Some demonstrators may have said such things, conceded Leila El Abtah, a 29-year-old protester who is the daughter of a Palestinian father and a German mother. But, she insisted, even thoughtful criticism against Israel is being misinterpreted here as hate speech. “There are more of us speaking out about Israel now,” she said. “Because of what happened during Hitler’s day, it is making Germans nervous.”

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is echoing on the streets of Europe, sparking a rash of protests — both peaceful and violent — and ratcheting up tensions across the continent. Saturday in London, 45,000 protesters gathered outside Israel’s embassy, chanting “Free Palestine.” In France, a nation already facing an uptick in anti-Semitic violence before the Israeli strikes on Gaza, pro-Palestinian youths last week looted and set fire to Jewish businesses in a suburb of Paris. French authorities have banned anti-Israel protests, but thousands of young demonstrators have defied the edict, engaging police with rocks and bottles.

Yet perhaps nowhere are the deeds of protesters sparking more discomfort than here in Germany, where the most radical protest chants are rattling through the streets of Berlin like disturbing ghosts of the past.

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