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The debate over the war in Israel is raging on social media. In this divisive atmosphere, it is impossible to call out anti-Semitism in Muslim communities or on the right wing without being applauded by all the wrong people. What Germans are failing to acknowledge is how much the country’s own history has to do with this.
-Analysis-
BERLIN — These are dark times. The brutal Hamas attacks on Israel have crushed all hope of recovery, peace, freedom – of a victory for light over darkness. The global focus has shifted to the threat of political Islam rather than the horrors of the war in Ukraine, although this and other crises remain very much alive. Whichever way you turn, there is another threat looming: the economic crisis, the migrant crisis, climate change, the possible return of Donald Trump. There is no end in sight.
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However, since October 7, which is euphemistically being referred to in media reports as the day of "escalation" in the Middle East, there has been another form of escalation, this time around the tone of public debate in Germany. As the political boundaries are shifting, so are the limits of what is unsayable.
Admittedly, social media only represents a part of the public sphere, but nonetheless it has a profound influence on the debate. We can see this shift in all forms of online communication, which shape how we speak, what we share and what we see. The current discourse on social media reflects a wider breakdown of inhibitions and taboos, which makes it all the harder to find the one thing we need in order to have a reasoned discussion: objectivity.
Singular history
In the current climate, it is impossible to talk about anti-Semitism without risking praise from all the wrong people. Anyone who reminds Germans of their country’s own history of anti-Semitism and calls out discrimination against Muslims meets with vociferous agreement from the left wing – and finds themselves lumped together with all those who deny that there is any form of imported anti-Semitism and accuse anyone of racism who highlights anti-Semitism within Muslim communities.
Historical guilt around the Holocaust still influences the dynamics of the debate in our country.
Conversely, the right wing is quick to praise anyone who argues that the atrocious anti-Semitic marches of some pro-Palestinian groups in the Neukölln district of Berlin represent a failure of integration. In this charged atmosphere, it is almost impossible to explain the difference between reasonable migration policy and unbridled xenophobia.
And under the surface of the debate is that other important factor of Germany's singular history. It goes largely unspoken, but the historical guilt around the Holocaust still influences the dynamics of the debate in our country. As a result, Germans often shy away from critical self-reflection on the country’s current situation, and the debate quickly escalates.
It is absolutely right to call out Muslim anti-Semitism for what it is. However, the zeal with which it is currently being denounced suggests that – once again – Germany is at risk of all too easily forgetting its own history. The argument goes that right-wing anti-Semitism is not the main issue today. But is that really true? The opinion polls tell a different story. Voters for the far-right Alternative for Germany party are more likely to be critical of Israel and endorse anti-Semitic views – and across recent surveys, the party’s level of support has remained stable at around 20%. That is just one indication of the persistent tradition of right-wing thought in Germany.
On November 5, 2023, Berlin witnessed a significant pro-Israel rally as hundreds convened at Wittenbergplatz.
However, the outraged reactions on social media prefer to cling to the same old familiar bogeymen: some blame Muslims or the left, while others accuse anyone who criticizes parallel migrant societies of being “right-wing”. Although they wouldn’t acknowledge it, both responses are shaped by the enduring legacy of German guilt.
The sense of individual or collective guilt is looming once again. The remarkable self-assurance with which people are making sweeping judgements about complex issues reflects the culture of public shaming on social media. One wrong word – or even just choosing to stay silent – can be enough to make you a target of these confident accusers, who seem to have no doubts or personal failings themselves.
This is a hangover from Germany’s failure to address its past. Germans have been silent about the crimes of the Nazi period for so long that now, in an unconscious act of overcompensation, they are ready to pillory anyone who stays silent about the war in Israel and Gaza – although individuals have every right not to comment on it, as long as they are not elected officials. However, the result is that blind outrage replaces nuance and understanding.
When it's better to stay silent
It is important to ensure that Islamist terrorism is never minimized, and that people don’t attempt to excuse it by pointing to supposed “context.” When it comes to brutal murders and crimes on this scale, there is no nuance to explore.
But the question of Muslim integration in our own country is a very different matter. While it is clearly right to condemn the pro-Palestinian groups celebrating the actions of Hamas, it would be an overreaction to suspect all people of Arab heritage of anti-Semitism.
We must not avert our eyes.
The unfiltered rage and polarization of social media do nothing to help the suffering of people in Israel and Gaza. Users are sharing the most shocking videos of hatred, aggression and violence. Of course, we must not avert our eyes. We must be informed. However, sharing these images again and again on social networks has an inflammatory effect and carries a hint of voyeurism.
There is a certain ambivalence in the act of sharing these images, these rage-filled words, although these emotions are of course understandable in such a terrible time. But sometimes, yes, it is better to stay silent. The suffering of the victims is so unbearable that it can leave us speechless. Silence does not necessarily represent a lack of solidarity, but a sign of empathy and condolence amid the constant raging of social media. A moment’s silence. An acknowledgment that this is the world in which we live. That the hope of a better future seems very far away.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials have referred to Hamas militants as "the new Nazis." But as horrific as the Oct. 7 massacre was, what does it really mean to make such a comparison 80 years after the Holocaust? And how can we rightly describe what's happening in Gaza?
Updated Nov. 8, 2023 at 5:35 p.m.
-OpEd-
TURIN — In these days of horror, we've seen dangerous equivalences, half-truths and syllogisms continue to emerge: between Israelis and Jews, between Palestinians and Hamas, between entities at "war."
The conversation makes it seem that there are two states with symmetrical power. Instead, on one side, there is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization with both a political and a military wing; on the other, a democratic state — although it has elements in the majority that advocate for a mono-ethnic and supremacist society — equipped with a nuclear arsenal and one of the most powerful armies in the world.
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And in the middle? Civilians violated, massacred, and taken hostage in the horrific massacre of Oct. 7. Civilians trapped and torn apart in Gaza under a month-long siege and bombardment.
And then we also have Israeli civilians led into war and ideological radicalization by a government that recklessly exploits that most unhealable wound of the Holocaust.
On Oct. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to Hamas militants as "the new Nazis." On Oct. 24, he drew a comparison between Jewish children hiding in attics to escape terrorists and Anne Frank. On the same day, he likened the massacre on Oct. 7 to the Babij Yar massacre carried out in 1941 by the Einsatzgruppen, the SS operational units responsible for extermination. In the systematic elimination of Jews in Kyiv, they deceitfully gathered 33,771 men and women, forced them to descend into a ravine, lie down on top of the bodies of those who were already dead or dying, and then shot them.
The "Nazification" of opponents, or the "reductio ad Hitlerum," to use the expression coined in the 1950s by the German-Jewish political philosopher Leo Strauss, who fled Nazi Germany in 1938, is a symbolic strategy that has been abused for decades to discredit one's adversary.
Ideological Iron Dome
But if Hamas' preaching is steeped in a profound dehumanization of Jews, then there is a tragic parallel in the words spoken on Oct. 9 by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: "We are fighting against human animals and will act accordingly," or on Oct. 10 by General Ghassan Alian, head of the Israeli Government Activities in the Territories: "Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity or water, only destruction. You wanted hell; you will get hell."
In 2018, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington published an educational kit titled Why Holocaust Analogies Are Dangerous, in which historian Edna Friedberg wrote, referring to the situation in the United States: "Careless Holocaust analogies may demonize, demean, and intimidate their targets. But there is a cost for all of us because they distract from the real issues challenging our society, because they shut down productive, thoughtful discourse," she wrote. "At a time when our country needs dialogue more than ever, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel. We owe the survivors more than that. And we owe ourselves more than that."
The Holocaust becomes a shield against any criticism of Israel's conduct.
The risk is that over time, the invocation of the Holocaust becomes — as writer Adam Shatz stated in the latest issue of the London Review of Books — "Israel's ideological Iron Dome, its shield against any criticism of its conduct."
Then, on Oct. 31, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, pinned a yellow star to his chest, accusing the Security Council of failing to pass a resolution explicitly condemning Hamas' attacks. Dani Dayan, the President of Yad Vashem, condemned the gesture because it "dishonors the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel. The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people, and being at the mercy of others. Today we have an independent country and a strong army. We are masters of our destiny."
There was also Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett on Oct. 12, declaring that "We must crush these Nazis." But he expressed himself differently just over a year ago, on March 22, when he discussed the comparison made by Volodymyr Zelensky who likened the Russian invasion to Adolf Hitler's Final Solution: "Personally, I believe that the Holocaust should not be compared to anything. It is a unique event in the history of nations and the world: the systematic destruction of a people in gas chambers."
Jews arriving at Auschwitz II in German-occupied Poland, May 1944. Most were selected to go to the gas chambers.
The tendency to use the Holocaust as a synonym for massacre and slaughter, to transform it into an insult, an accusation, a paradigm that claims to illuminate conflicts, acts of terrorism, and wars, weakens the awareness of the categorical, systematic, and industrial genocide that forever marked the precipice of European culture.
While this shortcut may come naturally to Israel, where, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are approximately 165,000 Holocaust survivors, 5,000 of whom are now evacuated near Gaza, it is much harder to comprehend its use in other countries such as here in Italy. For several days, various newspapers have been evoking the Einsatzgruppen, Kristallnacht, and the Nazi-fascist roundup of the Rome Ghetto to justify the need for the destruction of Gaza as a response.
In a country that actively collaborated with Nazism without ever facing its own responsibilities, and where streets are named after Giorgio Almirante, editor of the magazine La Difesa della Razza ("Defense of The Race"), there is an incitement to conflict, and ridicule of those who call for peace talks.
The demand for a proportionate response or ceasefire cannot be dismissed as anti-Semitic.
The equation that anyone who criticizes the indiscriminate actions of the Israeli Defense Forces is anti-Semitic cannot stand.
While anti-Semitism, like Holocaust denial, is a hydra with heads always ready to re-emerge — as demonstrated by the shameful incidents of Stars of David appearing on Parisian walls and the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Vienna —, it is equally true that the demand for a proportionate response or ceasefire cannot be dismissed as anti-Semitic.
How can we not be free to criticize a government, using the rhetoric of good versus evil, that has sealed off every passage, placed over two million citizens under siege, cut off electricity, water, food, and medicine supplies. In just the first six days of aerial attacks, the IDF dropped more than 6,000 bombs.
The toll on the 30th day since the Hamas massacre is immense: more than 10,000 Palestinians dead, 2,100 missing, 23,000 wounded, 1.4 million internally displaced persons fleeing under bombardment, seeking nonexistent shelters, forced to live among filth, drink contaminated water, and deprived of the opportunity to find the bodies of their loved ones under the rubble.
According to UNICEF, 400 children are killed or injured every day in indiscriminate attacks that made no distinction between civilian and military targets.
From the ashes
On Oct. 15, 800 scholars of international law and conflicts and genocide signed an open letter to "sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. We do not do so lightly, recognizing the weight of this crime, but the gravity of the current situation demands it."
On Nov. 2, a group of 720 academics, writers, artists, and Jewish activists, including historian Omer Bartov, one of the most preeminent Holocaust scholars, drafted an appeal in which they state: "In our grief, we are horrified to see the fight against anti-Semitism weaponized as a pretext for war crimes with stated genocidal intent. Anti-semitism is an excruciatingly painful part of our community’s past and present. Our families have escaped wars, harassment, pogroms, and concentration camps. We have studied the long histories of persecution and violence against Jews, and we take seriously the ongoing anti-Semitism that jeopardizes the safety of Jews around the world. We believe the rights of Jews and Palestinians go hand-in-hand. The safety of each people depends on the other’s."
The Holocaust constituted an ethical and political abyss that calls us all to account, but "the tragedy of Auschwitz did not happen in an empty space but within the limits of Western culture and civilization, and this civilization is a survivor," as was once stated by Hungarian writer Imre Kertész, who was interned at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
It is a culture and civilization that we have tried to rebuild from the ashes of World War II, equipping ourselves with a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international humanitarian law, and a legal framework for agencies and institutions such as the United Nations, which, despite their criticism and fragility, represent what separates us from the arbitrariness of nationalism and the desire for revenge or power of states, in protection of the individual in times of peace and war. It is to them that we must turn in the desire to contain fractures, rather than prod them to explode.
Where did the word genocide come from?
The first time the word “genocide” was used it was in the book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, written by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944. Lemkin utilized the term not only in the context of the then ongoing murder of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany, but also of previous historical instances of targeted attacks. The word itself is constructed from the Greek prefix genos (race or tribe) and the Latin suffix cide (kill). Then, in 1948 the United Nations held what is known as the Genocide Convention, where the crime was defined and codified. The UN defines it as follows: genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
How many Holocaust survivors are living in Israel?
The latest study published in April by the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority accounted for 147,199 Holocaust survivors living in Israel. The average age of the survivors was 85.5, and about 60% of them are women. Israel saw a spike of Holocaust survivors moving into the country following the COVID pandemic and the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine.
Who was Leo Strauss?
Leo Strauss was a German-American scholar who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born to Jewish parents in 1899, in Hesse-Nassau, then a part of the kingdom of Prussia, and was raised as an Orthodox Jew. Strauss served as a soldier for Germany in World War I, and afterwards began his career in academia. He left Berlin for Paris in 1932 due to a fellowship opportunity, and then moved from England to the U.S. when the Nazis rose to power. For Strauss, philosophy and politics are intrinsically tied to one another, a relationship which begins from the trial and death of Socrates. Strauss spent much of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and his legacy as a philosopher persists long after his death in 1973.
Sectors of the political Left around the world have practically lauded the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel — finally barely bothering to hide their good ol' fashioned hatred of the Jews, rather than hiding behind anti-Zionist rhetoric. Something evil has been re-released.
-OpEd-
BOGOTÁ — Marx and Lenin would be turning over in their graves. If only they could see how sectors of the political Left, which is supposed to despise religion ("opiate of the masses"), are now in bed with radical Islam. Those laudable traits the Left proudly claims as its own — humanism, inclusivity and diversity — have been summarily ditched to make way for what is an apparently more fervent passion: hatred of the Jews.
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The Middle East has, and not for the first time, unmasked the nature of some in the Left elsewhere in the world, and its newer incarnation, what some call the progressive or "woke" movement. Beyond what they claim to defend, there is something that fires them up every time, anti-Semitism.
It emerged in its crassest form this time in the celebration of the worst mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust, an unwitting embrace of a tyrannical, theocratic ideology that also oppresses women, kills homosexuals and crushes individual liberties.
What if the victims were another minority?
Some of these self-declared defenders of human rights have sought to hide their shameful anti-Semitism beneath that veneer of political correctness called anti-Zionism. But that is like applying gaudy make-up to soften defects in your features, merely to highlight them instead.
The pro-Palestinian gatherings we've seen look an awful lot like carnivals of hate, with their ire turned entirely on Israel and the Jews. There were even celebrations of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 at some top U.S. universities, as if their football team had scored a big win. One professor at Cornell University addressing a crowd, described the Hamas attack as "exciting" and "energizing", prompting vigorous applause. If such eminent institutions had existed in Nazi Germany, just imagine, they might have trained the party élite and future gauleiters!
Let's hope they can wake up.
Now, what would the woke brigade have said if Hamas had killed, not Jews, but some other vulnerable "minority" like blacks or indigenous, women and LGBTQ? Of course, they would have come out marching against the Islamists, denouncing them as retrograde, homophobic, misogynistic savages. But if their victims are Jews, maybe deep down they're good folk ...
Screenshot of a video clip published on Oct. 16 showing a professor at Cornell University lauding the Hamas attack as "exciting" and "energizing"
Also, I do not recall them saying a thing when Syria's strongman, Bashar al-Assad, murdered Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp or the Lebanese army stormed the Nahr al-Bared camp (in 2007).
Perhaps one should remind people what happened on Oct. 7, seeing as quite a few of them, especially around here, are keen to forget, or even deny it. Hundreds of Hamas terrorists entered Israel from Gaza, reached the settlements or kibbutzim near the border and proceeded to murder entire families with extreme cruelty.
At the same time, hundreds of young people were gunned down at a music festival, and more than 200 have been taken hostage: children, women and older people, and who knows where they are now. That is what the righteous people of the far Left are applauding.
Let's hope they can wake up and understand that you cannot defend social progress while siding with mindless henchmen, and expect us not to see that you are simply wallowing in hate.
Was it a pogrom? Could it happen again? Vazhnyye Istorii looks at the recent history, ethnic makeup and politics of the Russian Republic.
-Analysis-
The scenes were captured on video last Sunday: hundreds of rioters storming Dagestan’s main airport to protest against the arrival of a flight from Israel amid its war in Gaza.
This tumultuous event unfolded in the capital of Makhachkala, a city characterized by a volatile blend of factors: poverty combined with a high proportion of young people, a culture predisposed to aggressive conflict resolution and a willingness to engage in rallies, a diverse and multinational population that includes a large Islamic presence, and a public perception of law enforcement as weak and indecisive.
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This potent combination culminated in a situation where anti-Israeli propaganda served as the catalyst for an explosive outburst.
Dagestan is situated in the volatile Caucasus region, known for its multi-ethnic makeup, diverse faiths and languages, as well as a complex web of customary and Islamic laws. Poverty and a youthful demographic exacerbate these challenges, with crumbling infrastructure, high unemployment, and lower incomes compared to the national average. This combination creates a precarious environment, ripe for radical ideologies to find footholds.
What sets Dagestan apart from other regions in Russia is its enduring culture of grassroots political activism, a rarity in the modern Russian landscape. This was evident when the region witnessed substantial protests against mobilization since the start of the war in Ukraine. The inclination to resort to force when dealing with disputes is deeply ingrained in the local culture, albeit with mixed success.
Role of Russian state media
The strong condemnation of "Israeli aggression" in Russian state media made it clear that holding a rally was both possible and necessary. Protests supporting the people of Gaza were taking place worldwide, including Europe and the U.S., with particularly widespread demonstrations in Muslim countries. These demonstrations were considered legitimate as long as they remained non-violent.
As a result, the residents of Makhachkala also had the right to organize their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli rally. While organizing spontaneous rallies in Russia can be challenging, in Dagestan, they continue for various reasons, and the intense Russian media condemnation of "Israeli aggression" reinforced the idea that such a rally was acceptable.
As a result, the Muslims in Dagestan, prompted by information about the conflict in Gaza and global demonstrations in support of Palestinian Muslims, decided to stage their own rally. The crowd headed to the airport, knowing that flights regularly arrived from Tel Aviv, and aimed to express their dissatisfaction with Israel and the Israelis on those flights who were believed (falsely) to be seeking refuge in Dagestan. At this point, the situation was unfolding abruptly and spontaneously but remained peaceful.
Despite the relatively small number of participants, estimated at less than 3,000 according to media reports, the rally consisted primarily of young men - women, traditionally, do not attend such events. As the rally continued, the crowd grew restless, realizing that merely standing and shouting was growing tedious. It was at this point that they decided to escalate, venturing toward the airfield with a display of anger.
Though the situation came perilously close to disaster, there were no serious injuries.
A local man holds up a sign with a message reading ''We Are Against Jewish Refugees'' during a pro-Palestinian rally at the Makhachkala Airport
The Russian character of this incident was marked by a significant failure of law enforcement agencies. Even though anti-Semitic incidents had occurred in Khasavyurt, Cherkessk, and Nalchik just two days earlier, the Dagestani security forces were not on high alert. In a situation like the one at the Makhachkala airport, where a rally was taking place, the area should have been secured by the police, forming barriers to deter any activities beyond standing and shouting.
The events did not amount to a full-scale "pogrom," even if it was characterized by anti-Semitic rage.
Instead, the authorities were slow to respond Sunday, issuing loud statements without giving clear commands, allowing the situation to devolve and become more and more violent.
The events did not amount to a full-scale "pogrom," as some have called it, even if it was characterized by anti-Semitic rage. In such a situation, individuals go from house to house causing large-scale destruction. This was more a case of public disorder or hooliganism.
Indeed, it is unlikely that large-scale systemic anti-Semitic violence will occur in this region. The Caucasus remains strongly tied to tradition, built over years of mutual assistance and hospitality. In the event that individuals attempted a pogrom, neighbors, regardless of their religious or ethnic background, would likely come to the aid of the targeted peoples. Community and neighborhood identities play a significant role in this dynamic, and those intending to incite and inflict violence would likely be aware of this.
For the future of our world, neither the stakes in Ukraine nor Gaza should be underestimated. But understanding the limits of the comparison is important to trying to find a way out of each, says veteran French political scientist Dominique Moïsi.
-Analysis-
PARIS — Two wars are being fought simultaneously on the borders of Europe. The genesis, location, and military maneuvers are very different, as are the actors involved. But Ukraine and Israel share a common rallying cry: their right to exist as an independent state.
To be sure, Ukraine defending itself against the Russian invasion isn't neatly comparable to Israel's war in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack. And yet, the relentless images of war relayed from these distant battlefields onto our screens look identical, almost merging, from a city destroyed by bombs to the massacre of innocents.
Is it Ukraine or Gaza? Is October 7 in southern Israel just Bucha multiplied by 10?
Evoking the anti-Semitic mobs of the 19th century around Russia and Eastern Europe, several hundred young men descended on an airplane on the tarmac of an airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan. It is part of a series of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attacks in the Muslim-majority region since the war in Gaza began.
What happened at an airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan is being described by some in the Russian press as a modern-day "pogrom," after an anti-Israeli mob stormed an airport in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday night.
A crowd broke into the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, eventually getting past security and onto the airfield to prevent the arrival of what had been described as “refugees from Israel.” Information that they were supposedly going to be settled in Dagestan had been disseminated via local Telegram channels. Russian officials reported Monday that at least 60 people have been arrested.
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The attacks have been described by several Russian news outlets as a "pogrom" (‘погром’), a Russian word to describe violent, organized attacks against a particular ethnic group. The term first gained international recognition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — eventually adopted into other languages — when pogroms were used to describe a series of violent anti-Jewish riots and attacks that occurred across the Russian Empire and later in other parts of Eastern Europe.
Thus the brazen mob attack Sunday night in Dagestan, in the Caucus region of southern Russia, has a frightening historical precedent, though with now modern characteristics. One key difference is the source of the anti-Semitism appears to be coming in this Muslim-majority region in reaction to the conflict in the Middle East. Also, the mob formed thanks to social media, with information circulating that “refugees from Israel” would arrive on a regular Red Wings flight from Tel Aviv, protesters began gathering at Makhachkala airport around 7 p.m. local time.
Looking for Jews
Some people came with Palestinian flags, others with anti-Israeli slogans painted on signs.
In search of “Jews,” protesters began checking the documents of people leaving the airport. According to a video published by the Podem channel, a young man who claimed to be an Uzbek was mistaken for a Jew — about 20 people surrounded him and refused to return his passport.
People were trying to climb onto the wing of one of the planes.
The roads leading to the airport were blocked and police arrived at the scene. However, the police failed to calm the crowd that had grown to several hundred men, who eventually broke into the airport’s international terminal building and, shouting anti-Semitic slogans, began looking for Jews there.
Soon, the protesters managed to break through to the airfield; videos appeared online showing people trying to climb onto the wing of one of the planes.
The airport's operations were stopped; planes that were supposed to land were redirected to other airports. Passengers on the flight from Dubai, which managed to land in Makhachkala, said that due to an angry crowd they were not allowed off the plane for another five hours after arrival.
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the security forces managed to free the airport from protesters only around 10:30 p.m. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on Monday morning that security forces had detained 60 rioters and identified another 150.
According to videos published on social networks, during the unrest at the airport, protesters threw stones at security forces, who responded by firing automatic weapons into the air.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nine police officers were injured during the riots, two of whom are in hospital with serious injuries. According to the Ministry of Health of Dagestan, in total more than 20 people were injured.
The regional head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, commenting on the unrest on Monday morning, said that “no one will be forgiven.” He blamed “external enemies of our country” for the riots, claiming that a Telegram channel run from inside Ukraine had spread rumors about “Israeli refugees” arriving in Dagestan.
“I’m ashamed today,” he told reporters, encouraging those involved in the riots to “wash away their disgrace” by going to fight in Russia's war against Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that President Vladimir Putin would convene a meeting with top officials later in the day to discuss the events in Dagestan, which he described as having been sparked by “attempts from the outside to divide Russian society.”
Another mob at a hotel
On Saturday evening, residents of another city in Dagestan, Khasavyurt, staged a gathering near the Flamingo Hotel due to rumors that “refugees from Israel” were being accommodated there.
The crowd that came to the hotel demanded that all the guests come to the windows so that they could look at them. When this did not happen, stones were thrown at the hotel.
According to “ChP Dagestan”, after this the police arrived at the hotel and allowed several people from the crowd to enter the hotel so that they could make sure that there were “no Jews” in it.
The Telegram channel “PE Kavkaz” writes that after the gathering, a notice was posted near the Flamingo Hotel stating that “Israeli citizens (Jews) are strictly prohibited from entering” and that they do not live there.
Another anti-Semitic action took place on Saturday in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic). According to numerous Russian media reports, a Jewish center under construction in the city was set on fire. People with covered faces set fire to car tyres and threw them inside the building. There were no casualties.
The publications “That’s So” and “Caucasian Knot” further reported that in another republic of the North Caucasus, Karachay-Cherkessia, about 500 people gathered in front of the government building, demanding visitors from Israel be refused entry into the region. A second demand was later added: that all Jews from the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic be evicted.
Wild incitement
These so-called ‘pogroms’ in the Muslim-majority Russian republics has sparked fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Middle East could spill over into other regions around the world, as anti-Semitic sentiments are on the rise. In recent weeks, there has been surge of online threats against Jews, intimidation of Jewish institutions and brazen displays of anti-Semitic symbols.
Anti-Semitic sentiments are on the rise.
The attack in Dagestan recalled the pogroms from the last century, which often involved the destruction of Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues, as well as physical violence against Jewish individuals, including the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 and the Odessa Pogrom of 1905.
The new fears that the Middle East conflict will lead to a rise in anti-Semitic violence around the globe led to a statement released Sunday night by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, calling for Russia to “safeguard the well-being of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they are and to take strong action against the rioters and against the wild incitement being directed against Jews and Israelis.”
A spokesperson from the White House National Security Council also condemned the “anti-Semitic protests,” saying that the U.S. “unequivocally stands with the entire Jewish community as we witness a worldwide surge in antisemitism.”
A full siege is on in Gaza, and there's little room for escape for civilians.
Updated Oct. 13, at 5:55 p.m.
The reality of Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of warring parties has never been more evident than right now in northern Gaza.
Early Friday, the Israeli military told the United Nations that everyone living north of Wadi Gaza nature reserve should relocate “southwards” in the next 24 hours.
Just hours later, Hamas called on people in Gaza to stay where they are.
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“Remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation,” Hamas told those in the north of the besieged city, via a statement sent to media organizations. “Scenes of migration and displacement are a thing of the past and won’t be repeated, except with the victorious return of our people to our occupied land.”
Hamas, which was voted into power in Gaza, is also a heavily armed militia, and their demand that people not evacuate risks intimidating those that might want to try to leave.
Israel’s original announcement that people should leave northern Gaza is already an "impossible" demand, the United Nations said Friday. Any such attempt would bring major humanitarian consequences as it would involve displacing around 40,000 people per hour.
In response to the deadly Hamas terror attack last weekend that killed more than 1,000 Israelis, the government of Israel announced it was cuting off basic necessities such as food and water to the narrow strip of coastal land where more than 2 million Palestinians live. Meanwhile, bombing continues in Gaza, as a likely Israeli ground war approaches.
The UN has urged Israelis to withdraw the announcement. On the ground convoys of the International Red Cross and United Nations humanitarian agency staff have been spotted traveling south from Gaza City towards the southern part of territory, which may be in preparation for possible evacuation operation.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has called on the world to help “prevent a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, stressing there are “no safe areas” to evacuate.
“We do not have the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled. There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip,” it says in a statement.
The PRCS called on international aid organizations on the ground in Gaza including the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene with governments to “protect humanity and humanitarian space” and put pressure on “Israel to rescind this order.”
Later Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel's cutting off vital supplies to Gaza is a “breach of the most fundamental human rights.”
Israel drops leaflets over Gaza warning residents to flee
The Israeli military has been dropping leaflets from the skies above Gaza City. The flyers warn residents to flee "immediately" to southern Gaza.
Israel has been carrying out a heavy campaign of airstrikes in Gaza which have killed more than 1,500 people. It is also believed to be getting ready for a ground offensive into Gaza.
Gaza’s largest hospital will not evacuate
Despite orders by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to evacuate the northern half of Gaza, the Al Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, will stay put. “We have nowhere to transport the patients to,” said Dr. Muhammad Abu Salima, the director of the hospital, justifying the decision on Friday.
Gaza’s hospital system is on the brink of collapse, with fuel and medical supplies being denied to the Palestinian territory by Israel’s siege. The Jordanian government sent a plane of medical supplies to Egypt on Thursday, intended to be delivered to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing between the coastal enclave and the Egyptian controlled Sinai Desert. The status of this aid is unknowable at this time.
Blinken meets with President of Palestinian Authority and the King of Jordan
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled on Friday to Amman to speak first with King Abdullah II of Jordan, followed by a meeting with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.
King Abdullah II cautioned “any attempt to displace Palestinians from all their lands or provoke their displacement,” during the meeting, according to French daily Le Monde.
Displacing Palastinians at a mass level would only “aggravate” the refugee crisis in neighboring countries, such as Jordan. The King demanded that humanitarian corridors remain open, so that medical supplies and other vital goods can be delivered to the people of Gaza.
Israel missiles hit Damascus, Aleppo airports
A Jan. 2 photo of Israeli soldiers near the Syrian border in a tank in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel launched simultaneous missile strikes Thursday at two of Syria’s airports, in its capital Damascus and in the northern city of Aleppo, reports Syrian state news agency SANA. A Syrian military source told the agency that the runways of both airports have been damaged, and both hubs are now out of service. There are no immediate reports of casualties.
The military source said "bursts of missiles" hit the two airports at the same time, in what he said was a bid to distract the world's attention from Israel's war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
If confirmed, the strike raises the risk of a region-wide expansion of the six-day-old war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. A longstanding enemy of Israel, which occupies the Golan Heights, Syria is allied with regional power Iran, and Thursday's strikes came a day before Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was due to visit Syria.
The strike also coincided with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkens’ visit to Israel, and came hours after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke by phone with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, calling on Arab and Islamic countries to cooperate in confronting Israel.
Israel has vowed to defeat Hamas movement that rules Gaza, after Saturday’s attack that has killed more than 1,000 civilians. Tehran has celebrated the Hamas attacks but denied being behind them.
On Tuesday, Israeli troops fired artillery and mortar shells towards Syria after rockets from southern Syria hit Israeli positions across the border. For years, Israel has carried out strikes against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, including against the Aleppo and Damascus airports.
Sources have said strikes on the airports are intended to disrupt Iranian supply lines to Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.
Israel links siege to fate of hostages
Israel has decided to use its ongoing siege of Gaza — which has cut off vital supplies to 2.2 million Palestinians since Tuesday — as a hardline bargaining chip to force Hamas to release scores of civilian hostages being held since Saturday’s attack in southern Israel.
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Gaza will not be provided with any electricity, water, or fuel until Israeli hostages are returned home. Katz took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and posted that “no electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian.”
People in Gaza can still use power generators for electricity but with all sides of the border blocked, the fuel needed for the generators to work is running out. Hamas militants are holding as many as 150 hostages in Gaza, and the Israeli government has confirmed the identity of 97 of them.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s sole electric power station has been switched off, and over-capacity hospitals are running out of fuel. Hospitals in Gaza "risk turning into morgues" as they lose power during Israel's bombardment of the enclave, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned on Thursday.
This showdown over the siege and hostages comes as Israel is preparing for what many believe is an imminent ground invasion into Gaza. A new Israeli unity government and war cabinet that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed with opposition leader Benny Gantz must take into account the hostage situation.
One extreme-right government minister has been quoted in the Israeli press saying "now is the time to be brutal”, suggesting that the fate of the hostages is not a relevant factor moving forward. Many others are pushing for Israel to do everything it can to rescue them, especially as families of the hostages make public appeals.
On Wednesday night, al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, released a video allegedly showing the release of a female captive and two children. Israel dismissed the video as “theatrics” intended to distract from the group’s “true face as a barbaric organization”. Furthermore, Hamas warned that it would start executing hostages if Israel targeted people in Gaza without warning.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Israel has never dealt with a hostage situation like this: "Not in the scope, not in the magnitude and not in the complexity of where our hostages are." Conricus also added that the hostages are being kept underground, to "keep them safe from Israeli intelligence, and efforts to get them out."
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel on Thursday to show solidarity and seek to prevent the war from spreading as well as push for the release of captives. In a conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken has reassured Israel that they will “never, ever” have to fight alone.
Israel clarifies goals of ground offensive
IDF fires artillery shells into Gaza as fighting between Israeli troops and Islamist Hamas militants continues.
Daniel Hagari, Israel’s top military spokesman, articulated on Thursday that the main priority of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is to “eliminate” all senior members of Hamas and to eradicate the “ability of Hamas” to govern in Gaza according to the New York Times.
This is one of the first instances that a high ranking Israeli official has indicated a clear military objective since the beginning of the war on Saturday. It remains unclear what Israel’s political solution will be in Gaza if Hamas, which has dominated Gaza’s partially-autonomous government since the faction was elected in 2006, is successfully rooted out by the IDF. More than 1,300 have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, with 338,000 displaced.
Volodymyr Zelensky wants to go to Israel
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to go to Israel to show solidarity with the country amid the fighting in Gaza according to Ukrainian and Israeli officials cited by Axios. A visit by Zelensky would boost international support for Israel's counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza. Zelensky also told reporters on Wednesday that in the early days of Russia’s invasion, it was critical for Ukraine to feel international support.
"This is why I urge all leaders to visit Israel and show their support for the people. I'm not talking about any institutions, but about support for the people who suffered from terrorist attacks and are dying today," Zelensky said after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.
Since Hamas' attack on Saturday, Zelensky has given Israel strong public support and equated Hamas to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Israeli tourists in India try to get home
“I’m scared to go back. I’m scared that the situation will get out of hand,” says Shira Zer. This young Israeli realized something was wrong when her flight from New Delhi’s airport to Israel was canceled on Saturday. She then learned about the terrible news, including the death of one of her friends at the music festival raided by Hamas militants. Since the attack, Israeli tourists have been gathering in the Indian capital’s Chabad House to discuss the situation, find comfort and pray.
Clément Perruche, French daily Les Echos’ correspondent in India, talks with some of the Israelis trying to go back amid suspended flights, and gets their first reactions. “It’s terrible. Imagine you are sleeping and someone comes to kill you. What these terrorists did is not human,” says a young Israeli woman.
Jordan sends supplies to Gaza
The Rafah crossing along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt has been reported reopened after it was closed by Egyptian authorities on Tuesday due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza side. The crossing remains the only current escape route out of Gaza for Palestinian civilians fleeing Israeli airstrikes and the all but imminent ground invasion of Gaza. CNN later reported that it is “unclear” whether the border has been reopened.
The crossing is far from ideal however — only 400 people are allowed to cross into Egypt from Gaza during “normal” times. It is unclear if Egyptian authorities will increase this quota given the extreme circumstances and unprecedented volume of fleeing Palestinians. Egyptian border agents are likely to take security quite seriously, out of fear that Hamas fighters may attempt to relocate and take refuge in the Sinai Desert — potentially slowing down its ability to process fleeing Gazans.
Jordan has sent “medicine and medical supplies” to Egypt by plane to be delivered to Gaza. The scope and scale of the supply convoy is unknown at this time, but is undoubtedly a welcome sign to civilians in Gaza who have been cut off by Israel from electricity, food, water and fuel.
More than 100 antisemitic acts have been recorded in France since Saturday
.@GDarmanin : "Depuis samedi, c'est plus d'une centaine d'actes antisémites, essentiellement des tags, et des actes plus graves : 24 personnes ont été interpellées" #le710Interpic.twitter.com/jLBrmI67PU
More than 100 anti-Semitic acts, consisting mainly of “graffiti” have been recorded by French police since Saturday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in an interview with radio station France Inter.The graffiti includes swastikas and calls to kill Jews, in addition to "some more serious acts," including people with weapons stopped at the entrance to Jewish sites, he said.
There is currently no specific Islamist terrorist threat targeting Jews in France, Darmanin added. But he warned that "hate online has been unleashed," with an "extremely raised" level of reports of antisemitic abuse online.
"If it's a protest in support of Hamas or in support of the action by some Palestinians against Israel, it's 'No.' So, since Sunday we're prohibiting them on a case-by-case basis," Darmanin said, following the bans of several pro-Palestinian protests in France. "The Palestinian cause is absolutely respectable."
Elon Musk’s X says it has removed "hundreds" of Hamas-affiliated accounts
Social Media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, claimed on Wednesday that it has removed “hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts” after deleting thousands of posts since the war began on Saturday. The European Union (EU) gave Billionaire Elon Musk’s X 24 hours to address illegal content and disinformation related to the conflict before facing penalties under the Digital Services Act, a recently enacted EU law passed by the European Commission.
X has faced widespread criticism for allowing misinformation to flourish, a phenomenon amplified by the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel this week.
Russian speakers represent 15% of the Israeli population. And now, the war in Ukraine is bringing long-simmering tensions in their community to the surface.
ISRAEL — Tatiana was born in Russia, but her heart is with Ukraine — and not only because she has been married for 20 years to Alon Gour, who is from Kyiv.
"As soon as Putin came to power in 2000, I campaigned against him. He is a KGB officer and there are no good people in the KGB," explains the 59-year-old from Khabarovsk, a city 8,200 kilometers (5,100 miles) from Moscow and 1,000 km (620 miles) from the Sea of Japan.
Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.
Tatiana, who is not Jewish, came to Israel in 1999. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, she and her husband spend every evening and every Shabbat looking after Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Israel, and sending whatever they can to Ukraine. In their apartment in Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv, boxes ready for departure are stacked in every corner. Above the bookcase of the living room, two flags are intertwined: one in the colors of Israel, the other those of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently blasted Israel for not having imposed sanctions on Russia in front of students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Imposing sanctions against Russia is about values," he said. "Many European countries are on our side against Russian aggression, but unfortunately, we have not yet seen Israel join."
Jerusalem's "middle-ground" policy
This “middle-ground” policy is unacceptable for many Israelis, whether they have Ukrainian, Russian or other former Soviet bloc origins. Marine, 50, from Moscow, is “ashamed of the Israeli policy.” The war has shaken her.
Throughout the interview, she was very careful in her choice of words. "I arrived in Jerusalem in January 2000, just before Putin came to power," she says in Hebrew, speaking with a thick Russian accent. Back then, she came "out of love for Israel," not out of rejection of Russia. "The 1990s were hard years in Moscow, but at that time, there was a breath of freedom and hope in Russia. No one could imagine going backwards."
Ukraine and Russia have chosen radically different paths
Once she settled in Israel, she took little interest in what was happening in Russia. Her last visit to Moscow was in 2006. "Perhaps because my family, Jews from Bessarabia [a historical region in Eastern Europe], only arrived in Moscow in 1920," she says. With a Star of David pendant around her neck, Marina does not feel "guilty at all about this war," but like many other Israeli-Russians, she has supported Ukraine since the very first day of the conflict. "Because they are suffering, because they are victims of military aggression, but also because they are trying to build something interesting. In 30 years, Ukraine and Russia have chosen radically different paths, like all the countries that were part of the Soviet Union," she explains.
Politician and writer Natan Sharansky, the most infamous of Russian-speaking Israelis, raised his voice against the Israeli government’s policy: “I believe that Israel has no argument which may divert Putin from his goal of destroying Ukraine or bringing it back under total Russian control.” He also speaks in favor of a “clear and moral condemnation of what is a barbaric Russian aggression" and "for the sale of the anti-aircraft weapons demanded by the Ukrainians.”
As Minister of the Hebrew State from 1996 to 2000, he recognizes that "Putin got the keys to Syria’s airspace," but immediately specifies that "the lesson of the war in Ukraine is that Israel should never be dependent on the military power of any country."
The Nazi charge
Alon Gour, 52, was at first very critical of Israeli policy but is now relieved. "Thanks to Lavrov, our government has finally understood what it is dealing with," he says, referring to remarks by the Russian foreign minister made in early May in Italian media. Sergei Lavrov said: "Zelensky is making this argument: how can Nazism be present (in Ukraine) since he himself is Jewish? I may be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood." The head of Russian diplomacy was thus implying that it is possible to be Jewish and a Nazi.
This statement was strongly condemned by the Israeli government and by Yad Vachem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, but it did not surprise any of the Russian speakers we met. "They are anti-Semitic and don't even try to hide it," said Alon. Marina adds: "That's not the worst thing he said! If tomorrow he were to explain that Israel is a Nazi state, I wouldn't be surprised. After all, when Zionism was defined as racism at the United Nations in 1975, the USSR voted for it.”
On the other hand, Volodymyr Zelensky's speech via video call before the Knesset on March 20 created tension between Israelis-Ukrainians and Israeli society. The Ukrainian president compared the war in Ukraine to the "final solution" carried out by the Nazis and pointed out that many Ukrainians had been awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem for saving Jews. This interpretation of history shocked the Israelis, their officials, and even more so the public opinion.
Sima Kadmon, a journalist at Yediot Aharonot, Israel's leading daily newspaper, denounced "Zelensky's attempt to twist history" and his "disturbing comparisons". She also recalled that "anti-Semitism and pogroms were widespread" long before the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. Between 1917 and 1921, the Petliura pogrom caused the death of between 50,000 and 100,000 Jews in Lviv and Khodorkiv in Ukraine.
A protester outside the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem
As for Alon, who arrived in Israel with his grandmother in 1993, he does not accept the Israeli criticisms of President Zelensky. Firstly, because the Ukrainians are different today than they were in the past. "I spent twenty-three years in Kyiv and I never felt antisemitism. I'm not saying there isn't any, but it's not like the Russians try to make it seem.”
Secondly, Alon believes that "Zelensky had the right to say that because he is Jewish. Besides, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine said the exact same thing." And finally, Alon is convinced that "it is only a matter of time before the Russians behave like the Nazis. Moreover, two weeks after Zelensky's speech, the media revealed the Russian abuses committed in Bucha.”
Nimrod has a different perspective. He was born in Moscow in 1970 and arrived in Jerusalem in 1989. His family was killed in Ukraine during the Second World War. "In Ukraine, many places are named after people who murdered Jews and who are heroes there. It's an identity problem they have to solve," he explains. He also regrets that the media has "a purely emotional approach" to this conflict.
When support for Ukraine is prevalent, those who think differently prefer not to speak
Nimrod is not one of Putin's admirers, calling him a "dictator," but he understands what drove him to this war. "He could not stop Ukraine from joining NATO. His decision to start the war was an act of pure despair," he argues. "Putin called the Ukrainian generals to join him, but he was not heard. If someone in Ukraine had considered Russia as a friendly country, there would have been no war." Nimrod's views have isolated him from his friends, who are mostly supporting Ukraine.
90% support for Kyiv
In fact, the divisions already existed, but they were less visible and less violent. The current war has led to tensions, arguments, and even ruptures between work colleagues, between friends, between generations within families, and also between Israeli soldiers.
"At the time, the Russian-speaking Israeli media were divided, because they did not fully understand what was going on. Now they understand and are 90% in favor of Ukraine," says Alon.
In these circumstances when support for Ukraine is prevalent, those who think differently prefer not to speak. Moreover, Nimrod was very reluctant to do so. After several days of procrastination, he set two conditions: To reveal neither his real identity nor his workplace.
A neo-Nazi has been buried in the former grave of a Jewish musicologist Max Friedlaender – not an oversight, but a deliberate provocation. This is just one more example of antisemitism on the rise in Germany, and society's inability to respond.
-Essay-
BERLIN — If you want to check the state of your society, there's a simple test: as the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, John Jay McCloy, said in 1949, the touchstone for a democracy is the well-being of Jews. This litmus test is still relevant today. And it seems Germany would not pass.
Incidents are piling up. Most recently, groups of neo-Nazis from across the country traveled to a church near Berlin for the funeral of a well-known far-right figure. He was buried in the former grave of Jewish musicologist Max Friedlaender, a gravesite chosen deliberately by the right-wing extremists.
The incident at the cemetery
They intentionally chose a Jewish grave as an act of provocation, trying to gain maximum publicity for this act of desecration. And the cemetery authorities at the graveyard in Stahnsdorf fell for it. The church issued an immediate apology, calling it a "terrible mistake" and saying they "must immediately see whether and what we can undo."
There are so many incidents that get little to no media attention.
It's unfathomable that this burial was allowed to take place at all, but now the cemetery authorities need to make a decision quickly about how to put things right. Otherwise, the grave may well become a pilgrimage site for Holocaust deniers and antisemites.
The incident has garnered attention in the international press and it will live long in the memory. Like the case of singer-songwriter Gil Ofarim, who recently claimed he was subjected to antisemitic abuse at a hotel in Leipzig. Details of the crime are still being investigated. But there are so many other incidents that get little to no media attention.
Across all parts of society, antisemitism is on the rise. Until a few years ago, Jewish life was seen as an accepted part of German society. Since the attack on the synagogue in Halle in 2019, the picture has changed: it was a bitter reminder that right-wing terror against Jewish people has a long, unbroken history in Germany.
Stories have abounded about the coronavirus crisis being a Jewish conspiracy; meanwhile, Muslim antisemitism is becoming louder and more forceful. The anti-Israel boycott movement BDS rears its head in every debate on antisemitism, just as left-wing or post-colonial thinking are part of every discussion.
Jewish life needs to be allowed to step out of the shadows.
Since 2015, the number of antisemitic crimes recorded has risen by about a third, to 2,350. But victims only report around 20% of cases. Some choose not to because they've had bad experiences with the police, others because they're afraid of the perpetrators, and still others because they just want to put it behind them. Victims clearly hold out little hope of useful reaction from the state – so crimes go unreported.
And the reality of Jewish life in Germany is a dark one. Sociologists say that Jewish children are living out their "identity under siege." What impact does it have on them when they can only go to nursery under police protection? Or when they hear Holocaust jokes at school?
Germany needs to take its antisemitism seriously
This shows that the country of commemorative services and "stumbling blocks" placed in sidewalks as a memorial to victims of the Nazis has lost its moral compass. To make it point true north again, antisemitism needs to be documented from the perspective of those affected, making it visible to the non-Jewish population. And Jewish life needs to be allowed to step out of the shadows.
That is the first thing. The second is that we need to talk about specifically German forms of antisemitism. For example, the fact that in no other EU country are Jewish people so often confronted about the Israeli government's policies (according to a survey, 41% of German Jews have experienced this, while the EU average is 28%). Projecting the old antisemitism onto the state of Israel offers people a more comfortable target for their arguments.
Our society needs to have more conversations about antisemitism. The test of German democracy, as McCloy called it, starts with taking these concerns seriously and talking about them. We need to have these conversations because it affects all of us. It's about saving our democracy. Before it's too late.
In October 1943, nearly the entire Jewish population of Denmark made a perilous crossing from their Nazi-occupied country to neighboring Sweden. Setting out from ports and beaches along the coast, some 7,000 people arrived in rowboats and canoes to the safe shores of the port city of Malmö.
Now, 78 years later, in the same city, Jewish books in a storefront have to be covered up due to fears of vandalism. It was the Malmö City Archives that last week was preparing a display of Jewish literature to be open to the public on Friday. But at the end of the day, the books and posters were covered with a blanket — with the archivist fearing damage to the windows over the weekend, Swedish daily Expressen reports.
While the news sparked some outrage in the national press, it's only one of many reports of increasing antisemitism in the last few years in the Scandinavian nation so often praised for its welcoming atmosphere.
A declining diaspora
A 2019 EU survey shows that 70% of Swedes believe that antisemitism has increased in the last five years — the highest percentage of all the member states. Meanwhile, according to the latest available statistics, between 2016 to 2018, anti-Semitic crimes in Sweden rose by more than 50%, reaching a record 280 hate crimes. A large portion of these come out of Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city and home to people from 179 different countries — including Iraqis, Poles, Bosnians, Syrians, Lebanese and Afghans — all huddled together in a city that takes just two hours to traverse end-to-end by foot.
Meanwhile, the Jewish population has decreased drastically over the last two decades, with members of Malmö synagogues having fallen from 2,500 to 500 today.
Historically, threats, intimidation and violence against the Jewish community have mainly been attributed to right-wing extremists. While this issue persists, especially in a place like Malmö that is a voter stronghold for the far-right Sweden Democrats, a 2020 report shows that antisemitism today is more widespread among Sweden's Muslim community than the general population.
According to daily Dagens Nyheter, hatred of Jews in Malmö is often intertwined with anger over Israel's policy toward Palestinians. That was the case in 2009 when a peace demonstration with Israeli flags on a central square in Malmö was bombarded with bottles, stones and eggs; or more lately in 2017 when people protesting US President Donald Trump move to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem sang antisemitic songs about killing Jews.
Protesters denouncing nazism and antisemitism marching through central Gothenburg, Sweden, on Sept. 30, 2017.
The city's rise in antisemitism was at the center of discussion on Wednesday at the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. The one-day event, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, brought together 400 delegates from religious organizations and dozens of countries, including heads of state from Finland, Latvia, Serbia, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog, French President Emmanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken addressed the event through video messages.
This year, the forum also hosted representatives from social media giants TikTok, Google and Facebook, as the event focused on the dangers of the online proliferation of hate speech, disinformation and Holocaust denial.
"The struggle for human dignity must never end with pretty words," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said at the end of the conference. "It must be translated into practical action."
A continent-wide response
Such actions will include the opening of a Holocaust museum in 2022, better education for active citizenship to prevent antisemitism, as well as the appointment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry to consider whether Holocaust denial should be more clearly criminalized.
Of course, Sweden is not alone in facing the renewed historical hatred of Jews. Last week, Europe took another step to address its particular responsibility in combatting the issue, with the European Commission releasing its first official strategy on fighting antisemitism, The Times Of Israel reports.
Among the keys to the 26-page program are funds set aside to secure Jewish sites around Europe. One place that could use some help right now is the Malmö City Archives.
PARIS — "The belly is still fertile from which the foul beast sprang." We know these words, which close Bertolt Brecht's tragic farce The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. The play was written in 1941, but became famous much later, featuring Hitler as a mafioso, partly inspired by Al Capone. Though the last line is often cited, the words that precede it are typically forgotten: "Therefore, learn how to see and not to gape." Yes, indeed: seeing is something that must be learned. So let's try.
We should begin by noting that we're no longer in the post-War era in which these types of plays garnered attention, celebrating the crushing of anti-Semitism and warning for continued vigilance. They told of risks that the worst atrocities — assassinations, persecutions, insults, humiliations of Jews — could some day return. Today, we are now face-to-face with just such a return, forced to understand that the beast is never dead. It was only weakened, bridled. Now it's awake and virulent — and transformed.
For the "foul beast" now no longer simply embodies the anti-Jewish hatred of the Third Reich, which was a racial, biological-spouting version of it. Of course, this form of anti-Semitism is still very much alive, we even see it being reborn in Germany, just like we saw it parading last year in Charlottesville, in the United States. But now, other forms are being added and combined to it. In Pittsburgh, the man who last Saturday murdered Jews in a synagogue held them responsible for organizing the invasion of migrants. On another, separate but parallel category, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuses Hungarian-born Jewish-American George Soros of wanting to "flood Hungary with Muslims." In the United Kingdom, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party keeps accusing Jews of all that's wrong with the world.
What feeds it? Always simplification, even more than hate.
So what is it that we need to learn to see? That anti-Semitic attacks have increased by 57% in the United States since the beginning of 2018. That the Jewish population in France, less than 1% of the entire population, suffers alone more than half of the discriminatory attacks and insults recorded in the entire country. In the land of Emile Zola, today, Jewish children go to school under police protection. Graffiti insults are commonplace, not to mention assault and battery. Murders that not long ago would have made the entire nation take to the streets are now being committed amid almost general indifference. In short, the dams are broken. The beast is here.
What feeds it? Always simplification, even more than hate. It's so simple to imagine that all the problems of the world have only one root cause. It's reassuring to believe that all of the ills endured have identifiable responsible parties, that it would be enough to exterminate them for the misfortunes to stop. This scapegoating feeds all forms of anti-Semitism — its ancient form as well as its Christian form, its leftist form, its Muslim form, and its anti-Zionist form. The more complex our world becomes, the more simple a way out the foul beast offers.
"Act instead of talking all day long," says Brecht's epilogue. But how? Do we not, inevitably, wind up feeling helpless? To act, let's start by not looking away. Don't deny the facts. Don't pretend like everything's fine. Above all, don't believe that these ignominies should only concern Jews. They're everyone's business. Since when should each community be moved only by its own deaths? Without concern for others, without indignation regardless of origins, no humanity itself is gone.
The only weapon against the foul beast is solidarity — immediate, unfailing, unconditional, total. But it must be said, it is a rare commodity.
MUNICH — Artists are now using anti-Semitism and Islamism to shock, and that's not surprising. But if both listeners and rappers started to finally take music seriously, this could change.
Since Germany's top music prize, the Echo awards, honored the rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang, there has been a misunderstanding that both sides of the debate have somehow agreed upon: that anti-Semitism is part of hip-hop culture. Some intend it as criticism; others want to defend the two rappers. But no matter how you mean it, it's bullshit. Too many who are now talking and writing about the issue have no idea what rap is, to begin with.
In German rap, anti-Semitic content became visible only with the rise of rappers such as Bushido and Haftbefehl, around ten years ago. Kool Savaş, who started in the 1990s and is a pioneer of battle-rap in Germany, raps transphobic, homophobic and misogynist lyrics, but has never used anti-Semitic words. One might ask why so few have been upset about his words. But one thing is certain: The claim that anti-Semitism is part of rap is simply not true. This trend is relatively new.
It was born and grew because rap was a relatively unnoticed genre for a long time. In Germany, it was also considered to be the music of the lower classes and adolescents. This lack of interest from the public allowed the formation of a semi-criminal parallel community with its own "code of honor" — or at least one that pretends to be criminal, because that belongs to the bad boy image and offers street credibility. Much of it was and is only for show.
In recent years, the Echo awards have shown how rap has become a mass-market genre. What started out as a niche now reaches an audience of millions. The wider public is half-fascinated, half-disgusted by this strange alternative environment. It must be noted that the supposed street credibility of a rapper is also linked to whether he or she comes from an immigrant background, preferably a Muslim one.
The provocation must come in new ways, and reach new extremes.
But how did it come to now produce lyrics like "My body is more defined than those of Auschwitz inmates," with a tastelessness that's hard to beat? Obviously, for the Bad Boys it's no longer enough to "f*ck hookers and mothers' and "fill themselves with coke," rap texts, it seems, now have to embrace anti-Semitism, Islamism and conspiracy theories in order to catch the attention of their target group. What better way to shock the young buyers and middle-class white men who sit in the record company offices, ready to pay such artists a lot of money for music productions and videos. Maybe they want to be a bit of a gangster themselves, as German actor Moritz Bleibtreu suggested.
The provocation must come in new ways, and reach new extremes. Bushido, for example, relates to Osama bin Laden and identifies with the suicide pilots of 9/11. After the massacre of Charlie Hebdo he put a picture of himself in the sweater with the inscription "Paris' on the net. That suits extremists, not rappers.
German rapper and writer of this essay Reyhan Şahin a.k.a. Lady Bitch Ray — Photo: Roger Murmann
The neo-gangsters from Frankfurt and North Rhine-Westphalia have managed in recent years to again make woman the object of their degrading lyrics. The arguments that one hears defending misogynist rappers are now used to brush aside allegations of anti-Semitism: First, rap only depicts society; secondly, only the musical ego is speaking here, not the private person. Both arguments fail to take rap seriously enough and underestimate its influence.
Rap is indeed art, but art shapes society. Art can and should be political. In anti-Semitic rap, a societal problem becomes clear: From record labels to hip-hop journalists, many worry too little about what's actually "cool" and what's problematic. The subculture does not discuss its blind spots, but repeats and runs over its own image more and more. But we need to talk about anti-Semitism as well as Islamism, female contempt and homophobia. The best way is to talk about it with the artists themselves, but critical hip-hop journalism is currently almost non-existent.
Neither anti-Semitism nor sexism and homophobia belong to the rap scene per se. Rap, like any art, is what the artist does with it. So, guys, stop playing down your lines! Become political, the way it truly belongs to rap. Public Enemy's Chuck D once said rap was "the black CNN." So where are the voices of the artist-as-cool-social-critic? Thoughtful Muslim rappers? Why don't they get heard by the record companies?
*Reyhan Şahin, alias Lady Bitch Ray, is a German rapper and radio show host.
