High number of anti-Semitic acts of violence

2023-06-27 13:51:31

The fact that the number of anti-Semitic incidents fell slightly in 2022 only appears to be a superficial finding as a positive finding. The number of deadly or life-threatening anti-Semitic acts of violence rose last year to a high of nine cases.

Heike Schmoll

Political correspondent in Berlin, responsible for “Bildungswelten”.

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Antisemitism (RIAS eV) on Tuesday in Berlin mentioned the shots fired at the former rabbi’s house of the old synagogue in Essen. The Attorney General is currently investigating the suspicion that this and two other cases of extreme violence in North Rhine-Westphalia may be due to cooperation with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Anti-Semitic incidents with an ideological conspiracy background have increased significantly. RIAS reporting offices in eleven countries primarily documented gatherings and mass mailings with conspiracy ideological backgrounds. Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg do not have their own reporting offices; the head office in Berlin handles reports on anti-Semitic incidents in these countries.

Steinitz calls for more protection

The executive board of the federal association called on the federal states to remedy the security deficits for Jewish communities immediately. “If the promise to promote Jewish life in Germany is not just meant to mean warm words, the federal government must also take action against Iran’s state-coordinated terrorism and consistently campaign for the Revolutionary Guards to be included on the EU terror list,” said Benjamin Steinitz.

53 percent of the conspiracy ideological cases cannot be clearly assigned to any political background, so it is by no means just right-wing extremists who are behind it, but also people who see the Ukraine war as a Jewish world conspiracy or who have made anti-Semitic allegations in connection with the corona pandemic. At the same time, according to the registration offices, those affected encounter anti-Semitism in everyday situations, i.e. in shops, on public transport, in front of Jewish institutions or in their own homes.

In the Hessian district of Offenbach last winter, a neighbor threatened his Jewish neighbor through the closed apartment door. “He insulted her in an anti-Semitic and sexist manner,” the report said. In Hamburg, the waitress at a café commented on a guest’s kippa when paying with the anti-Semitic statement: “Yes, you can tell from his hat that he has money. They always have enough money.” More anti-Semitic incidents were also reported in educational institutions and kindergartens.

The Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, advocated the continuation of the work of the RIAS registration steles, which will be financed from the funds of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs’ program “Promoting Democracy” until the end of next year. It is alarming that anti-Semitism is becoming more and more common in the cultural sector, said Klein. The documenta was on everyone’s lips, many other anti-Semitic incidents in the cultural sector occurred below the threshold of public attention.

Ataman also presents numbers

Immediately after Felix Klein, the Independent Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination Ferda Ataman referred to a high number of requests for advice (8827) in her place. “More and more people do not accept discrimination – this is an important sign of social maturity,” said Ataman. According to a survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation, only one in four is familiar with the federal anti-discrimination agency.

More than 6,600 inquiries related to a discrimination feature that is protected in the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG). These include age, disability, gender, sexual identity, religion and belief, as well as racist and anti-Semitic discrimination. With 43 percent, racist discrimination made up the largest proportion of inquiries about discrimination characteristics in the AGG. 27 percent related to a disability, 21 percent of the inquiries came to gender discrimination. Five percent of the inquiries related to religion, one percent to belief. Four percent had a connection to sexual identity.

Heike Schmoll, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 2 Hans Riebsamen Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 Claudius Seidl Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 173

People often experience unequal treatment in areas of life that are not protected by the AGG, such as authorities, offices, the judiciary, education and the police. “Effective protection against discrimination must also be introduced here,” Ataman demanded. It not only advocates a nationwide expansion of anti-discrimination counseling and starts the program “respekt*land”, which supports 35 projects from all over Germany with a total funding volume of five million euros.

But she also appealed to the traffic light coalition to press ahead with their plans to reform the AGG this year. The AGG is partly outdated because discrimination by artificial intelligence has not yet been taken into account. But sexual harassment in civil law transactions below the criminal law relevance is also not covered by the AGG. But criminal law does not always help either, “because only unwanted physical contact is punishable”. It is therefore important that protection against sexual harassment by contractual partners and their employees is included in the AGG. Sexual harassment at work is prohibited by the AGG.

Ataman considers the German AGG to be one of the weakest in all of Europe. For example, anti-discrimination agencies in other countries can sue themselves or support those affected in court and by inspecting files. Only in Germany, according to Ataman, is that not possible. Even in Bulgaria or Northern Ireland the freedom of action of the advice centers is greater than in Germany.