Saleh emphasizes: Prevention work will not be cut back
According to SPD parliamentary party leader Raed Saleh, there will be no cuts in funding for prevention work in Berlin. On the contrary, he announced that he would even demand a significant increase in the current budget discussions. "What we need is not less prevention, but more prevention," said Saleh on Wednesday after a meeting with representatives of various religious communities and organizations that are committed to combating anti-Semitism and racism.
There was already an agreement within the coalition not to cut anything from prevention projects that had already been earmarked for funding. An exception would be associations or organizations that proved to be ineligible for funding, for example because they openly expressed anti-Semitic views, said Saleh. He would also propose to the coalition partner that more money be invested in prevention. In his view, a "significant increase" in funding was necessary.
The CDU had recently criticized Berlin's prevention measures. CDU interior expert Burkard Dregger, for example, had criticized that expensively financed anti-Semitism prevention programmes had remained unsuccessful and called for a "complete turnaround in prevention policy".
In response to CDU's criticism of Berlin's prevention measures, SPD's Raed Saleh proposed a significant increase in funding for anti-Semitism prevention work. This comes after a meeting where Saleh highlighted the need for more prevention, not less, due to ongoing conflicts and rising parties promoting hate speech, such as those exhibiting anti-Semitic views.
Source: www.dpa.com
