On Monday, a German organization that monitors anti-Semitism reported that, in the first half of 2022, there were 450 anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin, including 97 physical and verbal attacks on individual Jews. Ben Cohen observes:
While many of the incidents were triggered by the Israel-Palestinian conflict, several more involved Holocaust denial—a crime in Germany—and the abuse of the Holocaust by activists protesting the public-health measures introduced by the government to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.
The increasing willingness of offenders to make their anti-Semitic convictions public reflects the further erosion of Germany’s postwar taboo against anti-Semitism, which crystallized in the wake of the Holocaust. According to data released by the Federal Criminal Police Office in October, more than 1,500 anti-Semitic attacks had already been recorded around the country during 2022—an average of five per day.
At the same time, the German media have been awash with headlines about anti-Semitism throughout the year. . . . Anti-Semitic rhetoric has even been aired in the presence of the country’s leader, Olaf Scholz. In June, a smarting yet silent Scholz stood alongside the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas at a press conference in Munich where the latter accused Israel of having perpetrated “50 Holocausts” against the Palestinians.
Germany enters 2023 with the very real prospect that, when it comes to anti-Semitism, next year could well be worse than this one.
Read more on Algemeiner: https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/12/12/stung-by-repeated-antisemitic-incidents-in-2022-germanys-jews-face-a-difficult-new-year/