As Pro-Hamas Rioting Flares in Berlin, Antisemitic Incidents in Germany Climb 240% in Wake of Israel Massacre

The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany in the week that followed the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel increased by an eye-watering 240 percent compared with the same period last year, according to data published by the Federal Association of Antisemitism Research and Information Centers (RIAS), a government funded body, on Thursday.

A full 91 percent of the incidents recorded were rooted in hatred of Israel, RIAS said.

Dozens of rallies held across the country staged by Muslim organizations have demonized Israel, with many participants calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state.

The report also documented attacks on pro-Israel vigils. At one gathering in support of Israel in the city of Kiel, participants were verbally abused and spat upon, while there were more than 30 cases of Israeli flags flown outside public buildings in solidarity being removed or defaced. A number of Jewish-owned homes were also daubed with the Star of David.

An attempted arson attack on Wednesday morning at a synagogue in Berlin — which occurred after the Oct. 7-15 period covered by the RIAS report — failed to cause damage after the Molotov cocktails lobbed by the assailants missed their target and exploded on the sidewalk.

The report’s release coincided with serious rioting by pro-Palestinian agitators in Berlin’s heavily Muslim Neukölln district on Wednesday night, which resulted in injuries to 65 police officers and 174 arrests.

The tabloid newspaper Bild reported that earlier on Wednesday, a widely-shared message on the social media platform Telegram had urged residents to “turn Neukölln into Gaza, burn everything.”

Many of the rioters shouted antisemitic slogans, resulting in condemnation from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Antisemitism has no place in Germany, and we will do everything we can to stand against it. We will do this as citizens, as those who bear political responsibility,” Scholz told the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, on Thursday morning.

In a powerful speech denouncing antisemitism on Wednesday, Marlene Schönberger — an MP who represents the Alliance 90/Green Party coalition in the federal parliament — compared the feeling of “hopelessness” faced by many Jews now with the effects of the 1938 Evian Conference, where leaders of democratic countries largely refused to take in Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution.

“Seventy years ago, Jews were industrially exterminated and no state fought to protect them. Only since 1948 has there been a state that offers Jews security against antisemitism,” she said. “The terrorist organization Hamas cruelly called this security into question on Oct. 7, at a time when antisemitism is becoming increasingly violent globally, at a time when many Jews have already moved to Israel or are thinking about doing so. Why did the global community first have to see terrible massacres, rapes, and disappearances to understand that Hamas would also implement its vision of annihilating Jewish life?”

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