Anti-antisemitism in Germany

[5] According to Germany's Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against Antisemitism, Felix Klein [de], the reason for the creation of these positions was the large influx of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East, thought to harbour anti-Jewish sentiments.

It is used to imply that solidarity with Palestinians, which is particularly widespread in the global south, is due to hatred of Jews rather than the expression of a legitimate political view of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Australian historian A. Dirk Moses has said the aim of this is to prevent postcolonial academics as well as the German art and museum scenes from fostering the spread of such views.

[7][12] However, this comparison has been described as "highly questionable, if not pure demagogy" by peace researcher Gert Krell, who highlights the difference between objecting to a military occupation versus targeting a powerless minority in a totalitarian state.

In contrast, the International Court of Justice stated in its 2024 advisory opinion on the "Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem" that Israel had violated Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which contains the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid.

[24][25] Jüdische Stimme also had its bank accounts repeatedly frozen amid accusations that it supports BDS and "demonizes and delegitimizes the Israeli state in particular".

[26][27] British-Israeli professor Eyal Weizman, the founder of Forensic Architecture, said that it was ironic that he and other Jews were "being lectured by the children and grandchildren of the perpetrators who murdered our families and who now dare to tell us that we are antisemitic".

[28] Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham similarly said, "To stand on German soil as the son of Holocaust survivors and call for a ceasefire—and to then be labelled as antisemitic is not only outrageous, it is also literally putting Jewish lives in danger ...

We fear Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country's second-most popular political party, whose leaders knowingly traffic in Nazi rhetoric.

[7] Critics of the commissioners argue that they rely heavily on reporting from pro-Israeli NGOs, who investigate the backgrounds of invited speakers in order to find material that can be used in an attempt to cancel them.

[7] In 2023, more than 400 scholars, among them Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky, published an open letter "opposing ideological or political interference and litmus tests in Germany.