Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has called on people in Germany to “protect Jews” in the face of anti-Semitic incidents. “Anyone who attacks Jews in Germany is attacking all of us. That’s why we should all work to protect Jews in Germany, it’s about civil courage,” said Scholz to “Mannheimer Morgen” (Monday).
The state protects Jewish institutions. “We will not accept anti-Semitism. We have crystal clear laws: It is a punishable offense to burn Israeli flags. It is a punishable offense to cheer the death of innocent people. It is a punishable offense to shout anti-Semitic slogans,” Scholz continued. The law enforcement authorities have a duty to punish such violations. They have the necessary tools and have to use them consistently. “My impression is: police authorities and courts know what to do.”
Recently, there have been increased pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Germany due to the Gaza war as a result of the devastating terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas in the Israeli border area. After the weekend demonstrations alone, the police are investigating various cases on suspicion of sedition. At a rally in Essen on Friday evening, banners were shown, among other things, calling for the establishment of an Islamist caliphate. In Berlin, the police counted 9,000 participants at a rally. Officials there made dozens of advertisements, but spoke of the demo being “mostly peaceful.”
CDU leader Friedrich Merz called on the traffic light government to stop its planned reform of citizenship law. He said in the ARD program “Report from Berlin” on Sunday that the possibility of naturalization after just three years instead of the previous at least five years was absurd given the current situation. You have to look closely at who should be naturalized. “The federal government must stop what it is now planning in the first reading in the German Bundestag,” said Merz. And with a view to the demonstrations at the weekend, he added: “If we act like this when it comes to citizenship law, then we shouldn’t be surprised about further demonstrations of this kind.”
With the new citizenship law, the federal government wants to introduce shorter minimum stays for naturalization – instead of eight years, five years should be enough, and in the case of special integration services, only three. The law already stipulates that the German passport should be excluded for people who have committed crimes for anti-Semitic or racist motives. The prerequisite should also be that you can generally cover your living expenses without social benefits.
The vice-chairman of the FDP in the Bundestag, Konstantin Kuhle, told the “Welt” that no one should abuse the fundamental right of freedom of assembly to support terror and violence, spread anti-Semitic slogans or commit crimes. If relevant findings are made, “all possibilities under assembly law, including banning a meeting,” would have to be exploited. “If crimes are committed on the fringes of gatherings, all immigration law measures up to and including expulsion must be taken advantage of for people without a German passport,” said Kuhle.
The parliamentary managing director of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei (CDU), said: “The fact that extremists are proclaiming a caliphate on our streets and showing open hatred of Jews must have consequences.” What is needed is “not only a consistent, but above all a quick response from the constitutional state.”
The Federal Government’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, called for greater attention to be paid to anti-Semitism among the Arab and Turkish population groups. “Last year, around 23.8 million people with a migrant background lived in Germany, some for decades, and many were already born here,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday). “The anti-Israel aggression in everyday life, at demonstrations and on the Internet in recent days has shown that basic anti-Semitic attitudes can apparently be activated all too easily among some members of this population group of Arab origin.”
