A group tracking antisemitism in Germany said Tuesday that it documented a drastic increase of antisemitic incidents in the country in the month after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
The RIAS group said it recorded 994 incidents, which is an average of 29 incidents per day and an increase of 320% compared to the same time period in 2022. The group looked at the time period from Oct. 7 to Nov. 9.
Among the 994 antisemitic incidents, there were three cases of extreme violence, 29 attacks, targeted damage to 72 properties, 32 threats, four mass mailings and 854 cases of offensive behavior.
Many Jews in Germany experienced antisemitic incidents in their everyday lives and even those who weren’t exposed to any antisemitic incidents reported feelings of insecurity and fear, said RIAS, which is an abbreviation in German for the Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism.
Saying ‘the boy who cried wolf’ when Nazis and state actors are both active in this space just isn’t good enough. It isn’t that hard to say that criticism of Israel isn’t inherently antisemitic and say that antisemitism is vile. Reflexively dismissing claims of antisemitism gives cover to Nazis to commit antisemitic acts. People aren’t jumping into every discussion of antisemitism to say, “Golly, I sure hope they aren’t including valid criticism of Israel in these numbers!” They’re saying (or at least implying) that the actions described were either justifiable or ought to be dismissed.
It’s wrong to say that criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. It’s also wrong to say that it’s impossible to be antisemitic as long as you’re criticizing Israel. Every Nazi in the world is critical of Israel. They’d be overjoyed to attack Jews in the name of Palestine so long as they get to attack Jews. Protesters chanting “Death to Jews” is antisemitism, even if it occurs at a pro-Palestinian rally. To use an example from the article, harassing a Jewish student in Germany for the actions of the Israeli government isn’t valid criticism of Israel, regardless of the criticism; the idea that Jews are collectively responsible for those actions is racist. That’s not remotely the same thing as criticism or opposition to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, for example. They don’t deserve a blanket defense. Regarding the two examples of antisemitism above, we should be furious that racist dipshits are smuggling that bullshit into Palestinian solidarity movements, not offering them protection.