Report: More anti-Semitic protests in Germany after Hamas attack
Since the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, led by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas and the subsequent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, many Jewish people in Germany have been experiencing anti-Semitism.
The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) also perceives an increase in protests with anti-Semitic content, according to a report released on Monday.
“Disturbing normality”
“Calls for the destruction of Israel, endorsement of violence against Jewish people, open support for Hamas terror, and the trivialization of the Shoah [Holocaust] – all of this has become a disturbing normality two years after October 7,” said Benjamin Steinitz, managing director of RIAS.
RIAS documents “anti-Semitic incidents above and below the threshold of criminal liability from the perspective of those affected,” the association writes in its newly published report.
In addition to reports from those affected or witnesses, sources such as media reports or, in some cases, crime statistics are also recorded. According to RIAS, the documented anti-Semitic incidents do not constitute a representative sample.
RIAS sees increase in Israel-related anti-Semitism
For the new report, RIAS evaluated 2,225 gatherings from October 7, 2023, to the end of 2024, during which anti-Semitic content was documented.
With October 7, the number of gatherings with anti-Semitic content reportedly increased from an average of nearly one per day to five per day.
Israel-related anti-Semitism was documented significantly more frequently than before, namely at 89% of the gatherings, often in connection with other forms of hostility towards Jewish people.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas supporters and other Palestinian extremists carried out massacres in Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others were abducted as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Israel responded with a military offensive. Since the beginning of the war, more than 67,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed, according to the health authority controlled by Hamas.
