Germans rally in support of Israel – while others distribute candy to celebrate the slaughter of Jews.
By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner
Hundreds of people gathered in the center of Hamburg, Germany on Monday night to protest the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists on Saturday and to take a stand against antisemitism.
Among those in attendance was Peter Tschentscher, the German city’s left-wing mayor.
“There is not a millimeter of space for antisemitism and hostility towards Israel in Hamburg,” Tschentscher declared, while his deputy, Katharina Fegebank of the Green Party, called for “rock-solid, unbreakable solidarity” with the Jewish state.
Supporters of the German-Israeli Society were also present at the rally on Hamburg’s Jungfernstieg. The group earlier expressed concern that “antisemitic actors in this country will abuse Israel’s legitimate defense to foment violence against Jews in Hamburg as well.”
Other speakers at the rally included Hamburg’s state rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky, Finance Senator Andreas Dressel of the center -left SPD Party, and opposition leader Dennis Thering of the center-right CDU.
In a separate development, the Education Senator for Berlin, Katharina Günther-Wünsch, dispatched an email to school administrators highlighting the issue of antisemitism triggered by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
“It is to be feared that manifest or latent Israel-related antisemitism plays a role among some students,” she wrote. “It is advisable to talk to the students about the events and help them to classify them. It is important to talk about their view of events and to emphasize that violence does not solve conflicts, but rather makes them worse.”
A Berlin high school teacher who attended a pro-Israel rally over the weekend told the Bild news outlet that the situation in the German capital’s schools was tense.
“Many teachers are completely overwhelmed by situations like this, which are happening more and more often,” she said, adding that it was “unfortunately no surprise that people were handing out sweets undisturbed on Sonnenallee [a major artery in Berlin] in order to celebrate the murder of Jews.”
A survey conducted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in July revealed that more than 25 percent of Muslims residing in Germany believe that “wealthy Jews are the real rulers of the world,” far higher than the national average.
Germany registered a record number of violent antisemitic assaults in 2022, a year in which there were on average nearly seven antisemitic incidents each day.