In Germany, antisemitic incidents went up by more than 80% last year, with well over half of the total occurring after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on 7 October, according to a German anti-hate research group.
The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) said the recorded incidents range from anti-Jewish comments to attacks and include a mid-October attack on a synagogue in Berlin.
Of the incidents RIAS documented last year, seven cases were classified as “extreme violence,” which did or could endanger lives or result in severe injury. There were 329 cases of targeted damage to property, 183 threats and 4,060 incidences of offensive behaviour.
1,583 of last year's incidents took place in the street, more than double the previous year's figure, and 999 occurred on the internet — an increase from 853 in 2022.
RIAS also recorded 471 incidents at educational institutions and 311 on public transport, both more than double the previous year.
Dr Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, has called for more stringent measures to combat Jewish hate.
“In order to provide law enforcement authorities with effective means to comprehensively combat anti-Jewish incitement and violence, I am calling for amendments to the Criminal Code. For example, calling for the destruction of other states must be made a criminal offence," he said.
Despite this rise in antisemitic behaviour, a senior official with Germany's Central Council of Jews, Daniel Botmann, said that “we are not currently seeing the effect of an emigration of Jews from Germany," contrasting that with movement that has been seen from neighbouring France in recent years.
