German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier: Conflict with Hamas must not be used to justify anti-Semitic behavior • "Brutal anti-Semitism has shown its ugly face again," he says • "Make no mistake, we have a problem," American envoy to U.N. admits.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier | Photo credit: Reuters  |
Hatred of Jews is on the rise once more in Germany and across Europe, fueled by spiraling violence in the Middle East, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday at an international conference on anti-Semitism.
Steinmeier said Germany's Jews had been subjected to threats and attacks at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza must not be used as justification for an anti-Semitic behavior. Slogans such as "Gas the Jews!" were used during some marches, and in July at the height of the 50-day Gaza war, petrol bombs were thrown at a synagogue in Wuppertal that had been rebuilt after being burned down on Kristallnacht, the Nazi attack on the Jews in 1938.
"Bold and brutal anti-Semitism has shown its ugly face again," Steinmeier told an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe event.
Among the speakers was Karen Polak, from Amsterdam's Anne Frank House, who told delegates there had been "lots of outspoken violence against Jews who obviously have no responsibility for the policies of the State of Israel."
"You see it time and time again -- when tension in the Middle East rises, anti-Semitic incidents in Europe rise," said Polak.
With far-right parties making strong gains in May's European Parliament elections, the OSCE said all communities and faiths needed to be on the alert. According to an EU survey, one in four Jews living in the bloc reported having suffered an anti-Semitic incident.
Pinkas Kornfeld, a Jewish community leader from Belgium, blamed the rise in hate crimes on "people who want to import the Middle East conflict to Europe" and political extremists on the European far right and far left.
Samantha Power, U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, said anti-Semitic attacks "are not only a threat to the Jewish community, they are a threat to the larger project of European liberalism and pluralism."
Praising EU leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel for her firm stance, she asked why fewer countries were attending than at the first OSCE anti-Semitism conference 10 years ago.
"Make no mistake, we have a problem," she said.
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