Ministry of the Interior - Incitement and slogans: more anti-Semitic crimes again
There is incitement and insults, Israeli flags are burned and walls are smeared with slogans. And this happens almost every day somewhere in Baden-Württemberg. In the first nine months of this year alone, 184 anti-Semitic crimes were registered, which is slightly more than in the first three quarters of the previous year (175). And the number is likely to rise significantly, as the statistics do not yet include the protests following the massacre by Islamist Hamas in Israel on October 7. An increase in anti-Semitic crimes is becoming apparent in Baden-Württemberg, according to the Ministry of the Interior in response to an inquiry.
Even a brief look back shows this: in mid-November, Bundesliga soccer club VfB Stuttgart banned two spectators from the stadium for racist and anti-Semitic insults. A few days earlier, anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on the Württembergische Landesbühne theater in Esslingen and on the steps to the castle there; unknown persons also spray-painted slogans in red on the back of Rastatt Castle and spray-painted house walls in Ludwigsburg. In the three weeks following the Hamas attack alone, around 30 crimes in connection with Israel flags were registered, according to the State Criminal Police Office.
"The Jews' sense of security has been permanently shaken," said Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) against the backdrop of the war against Hamas and the demonstrations against Israel. "It is intolerable that Jewish people are once again hesitant or do not even dare to identify themselves as Jewish on our streets." Physical assaults and direct confrontations are the absolute exception in the southwest. "But any destruction or damage to Israeli flags is also unacceptable. Because this also shows the evil face of anti-Semitism," said Strobl.
According to Baden-Württemberg's anti-Semitism commissioner Michael Blume, Hamas is also using the latest methods to exert influence: "Hamas has managed to get even more anti-Semites to commit crimes with digital terror propaganda against Israelis and Jews," said the doctor of religious and political science to the German Press Agency.
According to Blume, the number of anti-Semitic crimes in Baden-Württemberg has increased by 206 percent over the past ten years. "However, the long-term development of anti-Semitic crimes is a cause for concern both in the state and nationwide," warns Blume in his report to the state parliament, which has already been presented. "Anti-Semitism is an experience that many Jews regularly encounter in their everyday lives from the middle of society."
While the number of antisemitic crimes in Baden-Württemberg was 99 in 2017, it rose to 136 a year later and finally to 182 in 2019 and 228 cases in 2020. Two years ago, it rose abruptly to 337, and a year later, after a significant decline, the number of crimes reached 245. Officially, because the number of unreported cases remains high. And the police do not always see a political motive, it is not always clear what is behind it.
The catalog of anti-Semitic offences includes incitement to hatred as well as insults or the so-called use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, usually the wearing of a swastika. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the focus in the past year was on damaging or removing flags of the State of Israel, which were hoisted on town halls as a sign of solidarity, for example. Damage to property in the form of graffiti with sometimes inciting content was also part of this area. "Physical assaults and direct confrontations are still rare", the Ministry of the Interior added.
According to this information, the majority of anti-Semitic crimes continue to be right-wing motivated with a clear upward trend. Of the 184 violent crimes in the first nine months of this year, 135 are attributed to this so-called phenomenon, compared to 109 cases in the first three quarters of the previous year.
Just a few days ago, the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office also lamented a drastic rise in anti-Semitic crimes across Germany. "The dimension of these crimes is new," Holger Münch told the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" (Tuesday). Anti-Semitism has increased in both the left-wing and right-wing spectrum, but it is also imported. "Many people have come to our country from regions where Israel is seen as the enemy and where the idea prevails that Jews must be fought against," said Münch. This anti-Semitism imported from abroad must be named and countered.
Read also:
- A clan member is punished here
- Traffic lawyer warns: Don't talk to the police!
- Will he be convicted as Jutta's murderer after 37 years?
- He also wanted to kill his cousin
- The CDU political party, represented by Interior Minister Thomas Strobl in Baden-Württemberg, has expressed concern over the increase in anti-Semitic crimes, including flag burnings and slogan graffiti.
- The state of Baden-Württemberg has seen a significant rise in anti-Semitic crimes, with 184 cases reported in the first nine months of the year, surpassing the previous year's total of 175.
- VfB Stuttgart, a soccer club based in Stuttgart, recently banned two spectators for racist and anti-Semitic insults, underscoring the issue of extremism in the region.
- The State Criminal Police Office reported around 30 crimes connected to Israeli flags in the three weeks following the Hamas attack, indicating a alarming increase in such incidents.
- Michael Blume, Baden-Württemberg's anti-Semitism commissioner, has linked the rise in anti-Semitic crimes to digital terror propaganda used by extremist groups like Hamas.
- The Ministry of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg has identified damaging or removing Israeli flags as a focus area in anti-Semitic crimes, along with graffiti inciting content and property damage.
- The majority of anti-Semitic crimes in Baden-Württemberg are right-wing motivated, with a clear upward trend, according to the Ministry of the Interior's statistics.
- Holger Münch, the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, has expressed concern over a drastic increase in anti-Semitic crimes across Germany, highlighting the issue of imported extremism from abroad.
Source: www.stern.de
