Levi Salomon is worried. He has been tracking down signs of anti-Semitism in demonstrations in Berlin for more than 25 years. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, “there are almost no taboos left,” he is alarmed.
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“October 7th marks a turning point” in “the dimension” of hateful behavior towards Jews in Germany, judges AFP. This Muscovite who came to the capital in 1991, during the country’s reunification, to, as he says, escape “the hostility to the state -Semitism” that prevailed in Russia at that time.
That day, the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, launched a bloody attack in Israel that left more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, dead, mowed down by bullets, burned alive or mutilated.
Shortly afterwards, in Berlin, “people handed out sweets to express their joy at these brutal murders,” in the Neukölln district with a large population of Arab and Turkish origins, he remembers.
“I’ve never seen that before,” he breathes, visibly shocked.
AFP
He said he was also observing a sharp increase in calls for the destruction of Israel, expressed in particular by the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The 65-year-old began identifying forms of anti-Semitism in Berlin in 1997 and in 2008 founded the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism, an association that documents and analyzes them.
Demonstrations by the extreme right and left or the pro-Palestinian side are an area where disagreements often arise.
“Indoctrinated” children
He was also affected by the violence of certain pro-Palestinian rallies.
In Berlin, a city with the largest urban Palestinian diaspora in Europe, barricades were burned, police were injured by stones thrown and dozens of participants were arrested.
Yet another dimension: the high number of protesting young people or students on the streets.
He remembers a sentence that children said to him in 2004 while researching Islamist anti-Semitism. “Knife planted, knife withdrawn, knife red, the Jew is dead,” he says.
“Today these children have become adults.” And children “continue to be indoctrinated,” he believes.
On a Saturday in early November, he came to Berlin with his camera and bulletproof vest to follow a parade in support of Palestinians in Gaza, victims of the massive bombings carried out by Israel in retaliation for the attack on Hamas.
He says he has been attacked several times in the past. But this time the atmosphere is quite calm, many came with their families.
Many very young children sing “Free Palestine.”
Levi Salomon says he believes it is completely legitimate to demonstrate against the dramatic situation of Palestinians in Gaza, where, according to Hamas, nearly 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by bombs.
“But I had a slight hope of seeing a poster or sign condemning Hamas somewhere,” he said.
A disappointed hope that day. “They simply cursed Israel,” he notes.
Return of fear
Across Europe has been affected by a resurgence of anti-Semitic attacks over the past month. The European Commission denounced a situation in which “the Jews of Europe are once again living in fear.”
But in Germany, because of the Shoah, this situation is even more worrying, also for the government, which, with the voice of its Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, has just made a loud, loud call to fight against anti-Semitism in the country, including that of the extreme left and some Muslims are running out of.
Germany has long been seen as exemplary in making amends for its genocidal past, which has led to a certain complacency, said Felix Klein, the government representative responsible for combating anti-Semitism, on Tuesday.
“A large part of the population believed that they were immune to anti-Semitism,” he said.
The head of the German domestic secret service, Thomas Haldenwang, even warned of the return of the “darkest hours of national history”.
The federal police announced that they had counted around 2,000 crimes in connection with the war in the Middle East. There are more than a thousand purely anti-Semitic acts in France.
In this context, the commemoration on Thursday on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom on the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938 is of particular importance.
Head of State Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz are scheduled to speak.