BKA on the situation in Germany: "Potential for escalation is high"
According to Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, 3532 crimes have been registered in Germany since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. These are preliminary figures, said the SPD politician in Berlin after a visit to the Joint Counter-Terrorism Center, where the federal and state security authorities exchange information.
The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, said that it would only be possible to assess how many of these crimes had an anti-Semitic background after a certain period of time. So far, just under 500 clearly anti-Semitic offenses are known, with a large proportion of foreign and religious ideology. According to the report, Islamism in particular falls into the category of religious ideology.
Focus in Berlin
Property damage played a prominent role in the crimes, accounting for around 30 percent, said Münch. Incitement to hatred accounts for around 15 percent and often occurs online. "The number of violent crimes is in the mid three-digit range. That is also high." The focus here is on resistance offenses in connection with pro-Palestinian events, particularly in Berlin. "Here they concentrate on the unpeaceful demonstrations."
"We are fighting this disgusting terror propaganda," said Faeser. Channels run by Hamas and its supporters are being blocked. The BKA has already issued and implemented the removal of channels on the Telegram messaging service 98 times. In addition, more than 500 deletion requests have been sent to online providers since October 7. "Terrorist propaganda has also been overwhelmingly deleted here."
Authorities assume a "high abstract threat level"
Münch emphasized: "The potential for escalation is high." There are currently no findings that indicate a concrete threat to Israeli or Jewish institutions, but the authorities are assuming a "high abstract threat situation".
According to Münch, there has been a 47 percent increase in anti-Semitic crimes over the past four years. For many years, politically motivated right-wing violence had accounted for a large proportion of this, but currently there has been a "very, very sharp increase" in the proportion of offenses relating to foreign or religious ideology.
According to Münch, there are currently almost 500 Islamist threats. Threats are people who the authorities believe are capable of committing the most serious politically motivated crimes, including attacks. There are currently around 70 right-wing extremist threats, as well as people from other categories. However, not all of them are in Germany and at large. "Then the number is significantly reduced."
In light of the increase in anti-Semitic crimes, German authorities are actively working to combat terror propaganda. They've blocked and deleted Hamas-related channels on Telegram over 98 times since the October 7 terrorist attack. Additionally, the authorities are suspicious of the high potential for internal security escalation due to extremist groups, especially in the context of pro-Palestinian events.
Source: www.dpa.com
