Germany faces pressure over anti-Semitism crackdown

Germany continues to fend off accusations of human rights abuses in its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices and symbols.

Berlin is working to bring an end to the questions it has been facing over its conduct towards those critical of Israel's actions in Gaza or support for Palestine.

Videos of police arresting, pushing and intimidating pro Palestinian protesters have been circulating around social media platforms – keeping international criminal lawyer Nadija Samour very busy.

She tells CGTN that the cases she's been working on "span from defending activists and organizers against police suppression, to accusations of criminal offences, but also the struggle against demonstration bans, activities that are considered 'anti-Semitic', quote unquote. There is very concrete repression."

The Council of Europe, a prominent international human rights organization, condemned Berlin in June for its police crackdowns on voices supportive of Palestine, accusing it of contradicting the European Convention on Human Rights and UN human rights treaties by suppressing free speech.

Germany's Interior Federal Ministry replied saying "protests against the Gaza war and against the Israeli government are, of course, legitimate. It is unacceptable, even if freedom of expression and assembly are guaranteed, for protests to involve violence against people or property, or for other crimes to be committed."

Silencing the arts?

Yet some Berliners complain that the crackdown goes beyond street protests. Many in the arts world say they have been silenced.

Oyoun cultural centre in the capital was funded by the state of Berlin to produce, in the words of co-founder Louna Sbou, "cultural events that were different and were centered around marginalized communities." 

But after an event which included a well-known Jewish anti-Zionist group, funding for the center was cut and it was forced to close.

"There had been absolutely no willingness to discuss the importance of our work," says Sbou, "and the importance of spaces for Jewish voices that might not be the ones the government wants to highlight."

Candice Breitz, a South African Jewish artist, had one of her exhibitions canceled in the German state of Saarland, after a tweet she sent out in support of Palestine but condemning Hamas.

Lawyer Samour says Berlin's broad understanding of 'anti-Semitism' is because of its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition – "basically a definition that conflated the criticism of Israel or anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism," she tells CGTN. "Using this definition, (means) when you criticize Israel, that is an anti-Semitic act."

Therefore, any support for Palestine or criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza is perceived as being anti-Semitic by the German state.

Yet attacks against Jewish communities around the world have increased since October 7, 2023.

"Unfortunately, anti-Semitism has grown," says Yehudah Teichtal, the Chief Rabbi for Berlin. "(It) has created a great deal of insecurity, worry and doubt and that's all part of the reality today."

Linos Heyler, a Jewish man originally from South Africa, tells CGTN that he personally knows many people in Berlin who have been threatened "because they are Jewish, because they are from Israel."

Two-state dithering?

Germany has been a supportive voice of a two-state solution at last week's UN conference which launched the 'New York Declaration', ensuring "unwavering support" for a two-state solution and calling on Israel to commit to a Palestinian state. 

However, unlike neighbors France, Germany is not planning on recognizing a Palestinian state at September's UN General Assembly, with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying that such recognition should only come "at the end of" a two-state-solution process.

Germany's sensitivity around the issue of anti-Semitism is perhaps understandable, given the country's unique past – culminating in the Holocaust in which nearly six million European Jews were killed by the Nazis.

Government critics say Germany's broad crackdown on voices it perceives as being anti-Semitic is jeopardizing its commitment to its own charter of freedom of speech and expression – leading many to ask if Berlin has truly learnt its lessons from history.