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.
Someone will say something similar any time antisemitism is discussed in any context. Whatever your intention, it has the effect of minimizing and normalizing antisemitism. The article is clear that only a fifth of incidents are even tangentially related to Israel at all. Attacking or threatening German Jews or destroying their property isn’t criticism of Israel. Marking Jewish homes with a Star of David or firebombing synagogues isn’t supporting Palestinians.
‘Criticism of Israel’ shouldn’t mean giving cover to Nazis.
While I agree that’s true, it’s also the case that Israel has both conflated itself with Jewish people globally to claim criticism of itself as antisemitism, as well as committed actual atrocities against non-Israeli Jewish people as a means of propaganda to promote the idea that nowhere is safe for Jewish people except Israel. This muddies the water and makes it difficult to accurately discuss and criticize actual antisemitism, to the benefit of Israel and to the detriment of Jewish people.
Even if that’s true, Jewish people are not collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. In that case, you’d have an argument for not trusting the Israeli government. You can’t extend that to German Jews (in this case) or groups that monitor antisemitism in Germany without it also being an implicit argument about why you can’t trust Jews.
It’s more of a “boy who cried wolf” scenario. Many have become numb to accusations of antisemitism, because the term is frequently used incorrectly. Israel, along with Pro-Israel groups in Europe and the US (who may or may not themselves be Jewish) are frequently guilty of misusing the term. This article even states that 21% of counted incidents were anti-Israel, and a further 5% were anti-imperialist. Including those in the overall count is just incorrect unless they are also antisemitic in some other way, and because of that people are right to be skeptical of claims like in this headline. It’s not skepticism of Jewish people, it’s skepticism of people who seem motivated to call anti-Israeli acts antisemitic.
The solution here also isn’t to stop reporting on antisemitism. Doing so is important and should be recorded and reported correctly. The solution is that anti-Israeli acts cannot be included in those statistics, and people with a specific motivation to do so shouldn’t be the ones reporting.
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.
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And whenever groups criticize israel or support palestinians someone will call it anti-semitism, minimizing and normalizing the genocide of palestinians.
whataboutwhataboutwhataboutwhataboutwhatabout
You don’t have to be a useful idiot for Nazis. That’s what you’re doing when you pop into a discussion about antisemitism to say that sometimes it’s valid or maybe not happening at all. Opposition to antisemitism has absolutely nothing to say about Palestinians at all.
You’re missing the point. The overuse of accusing others of antisemitism for simple, honest criticisms of Isreals actions and/or expressing support for the people they are committing genocide on, is why the word is being devalued.
You are correct that the article makes it clear that actual antisemitism is on the rise. But it doesn’t change the fact that “antisemitism” accusations are being overused, and that people are naturally suspicious at every claim.
The boy who cried wolf.
I’d argue that you’re missing the point: reflexively dismissing claims of antisemitism gives cover to Nazis to commit acts of antisemitism.
This article isn’t even about Israel. Only 21% of the incidents are even related to anti-Israel activism. Is there some valid criticism here I’m missing? Is blaming some random Jewish student for the actions of the Israeli government what passes for valid criticism these days? Even if you dismiss those incidents (and you shouldn’t), this is overwhelmingly about antisemitism. Chiming in to suggest that whatever occurred was either justified or imaginary isn’t helpful.
I’d also argue that you’re missing an opportunity to say that solidarity with Jews against antisemitism and solidarity with Palestinians aren’t mutually exclusive. We can do both.
I’m sorry, but while you seem to be an intelligent and thoughtful enough person, your arguments seem to be in bad faith.
The article is specifically framed as since the Hamas / Isreal conflict began. That’s specifically Isreal related. It’s in the title.
I never claimed, nor would I ever, that attacks on innocents because of their religion/ethnic background, is valid criticism. Nor did I chime in to justify it. You’re intelligent enough to understand my prior point, but you intentionally misrepresent it.
And my comment clearly made a distinction between jews and Isreal as a state. To me, that’s at least implying that I show solidarity with the Jewish people, because I do not lump the actions of the Isreal government, which I condemn, to be representative of the Jewish people. That was more subtext, so I’ll give you that one.
But, this all goes to reinforce my earlier assertion that “the boy who cried wolf” is in full effect here. This is all very exhausting to dive into the minutiae of stances in every comment thread related to Isreal or Palestine. And I can forgive anyone who glances at a topic related to either with antisemitism as the topic to approach it with skepticism.
I just want to point out there are multiple accounts replying in this chain. It’s easy to get confused, and people aren’t necessarily arguing in bad faith. Good points have been brought up by multiple accounts, and this is an understandably emotional/controversial topic.
I think there’s some confusion from the chain of replies and some from me not writing clearly enough.
I responded to someone and you responded in defense of OP. My response was partially explaining/justifying my initial comment. My statement about people “chiming in” was about people dismissing reports of antisemitism in every discussion regardless of context. I also probably should have said that “we” or “they” are missing an opportunity instead of “you.” Just to be clear: I don’t think that you make no distinction between Jewish people and the Israeli government. I’m not accusing you of racism or antisemitism. Sorry!
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