A double standard lies behind German criticism of pro-Palestinian demonstrators
In the past weeks, after recent events in Palestine/Israel, a number of German politicians, journalists and academics cautioned against antisemitism arising from migrant communities. These claims, made by the likes of Armin Laschet, the head of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), imply that today’s antisemitism is a phenomenon that has been mainly imported from abroad, especially by Muslim immigrants.
This assumption is not new, but it has gained traction in the wake of demonstrations against Israel’s 2014 Gaza war and the European ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015-16. Bild, Germany’s leading tabloid, as well as conservative politicians in particular, has been accused of propagating that assumption. In the mainstream media, few critical voices can be heard that challenge this discourse. But the shortcomings of this framing are significant.
After the admission of almost 900,000 refugees into Germany in 2015 and 2016 – mostly coming from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the third strongest party. Indeed, racism and xenophobia rose enormously during those years. In 2016, for example, there were more than 3,500 attacks on refugees while, in 2020, there were still some 1,600 assaults. In a survey conducted in 2018-19, more than 50% of Germans acceded to statements that were hostile to refugees. But xenophobia and anti-Muslim racism had been thriving long before. In a survey conducted in 2010, for example, 55.4% of Germans agreed with the following statement: “I understand very well that some people think Arabs are displeasing.”
The missing context
It is now widely accepted that right-wing extremism poses the most significant threat to Germany’s democracy. The government is aware of this and has taken a number of measures to curb such extremism. But the surge in xenophobia has simultaneously radicalized the right wings of conservative, liberal and social democratic parties in the Bundestag. They try to increase their own popularity and weaken the AfD by taking a more restrictive stance on refugees and immigration. Widely held resentment of migrants, the rise of the AfD, the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2021 and Germany’s unreserved support for Israel form the backdrop of the current debate.
Some of those who have in recent weeks shown solidarity with Israel and spoken out against antisemitism have themselves been accused of antisemitic acts. Fabrice Ambrosini, for example, the ex-chairman of the CDU’s youth organisation in the Rheinisch-Bergischer district, was recently caught on video seemingly giving a Hitler salute. Though Ambrosini denies this, claiming he only “briefly raised his left arm”, he resigned his post over the incident last month. Others have seemingly promulgated antisemitic conspiracy theories. The former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, for example, has been accused of using words and phrases such as “globalists” and “the great reset” that are rooted in antisemitism, though it is not clear whether Maaßen knew of their antisemitic connotations.
There is also a more general reluctance to criticise racist and antisemitic attitudes among Germans. Today, within many German households, there is a veil of silence when it comes to the activities of their family members during fascist Germany. Unlike the participants in the German student movement of 1968, who engaged critically with the Nazi past of their contemporaries, discussing the role of parents and grandparents during Nazism has become taboo again among large segments of society. When migrants make anti-Jewish statements, however, the outrage is formidable.
Recently, Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, accused people with immigrant backgrounds of antisemitism, as well as leftists such as the postcolonial thinker Achille Mbembe (an accusation that Mbembe denies). But Klein remains utterly silent when it comes to the allegations involving those in his own party, such as Ambrosini and Maaßen. Under the guise of accusations of antisemitism, he and like-minded fellows not only flaunt their racist and prejudiced world views, but display double standards. Horst Seehofer, a politician with the CDU’s partner the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Herbert Reul, CDU interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, are prime examples. They have proposed legal measures against the recent wave of antisemitism, but at the same time prevent scientific examinations of right-wing extremism and antisemitism within the police.
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