this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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A group tracking antisemitism in Germany said Tuesday that it documented a drastic increase of antisemitic incidents in the country in the month after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

The RIAS group said it recorded 994 incidents, which is an average of 29 incidents per day and an increase of 320% compared to the same time period in 2022. The group looked at the time period from Oct. 7 to Nov. 9.

Among the 994 antisemitic incidents, there were three cases of extreme violence, 29 attacks, targeted damage to 72 properties, 32 threats, four mass mailings and 854 cases of offensive behavior.

Many Jews in Germany experienced antisemitic incidents in their everyday lives and even those who weren’t exposed to any antisemitic incidents reported feelings of insecurity and fear, said RIAS, which is an abbreviation in German for the Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism.

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[–] blazera@kbin.social 67 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Im just way more skeptical everytime i see the word "antisemitic" with how much its being used for criticism of Israel or support of palestinians.

[–] theonyltruemupf@feddit.de 75 points 11 months ago (12 children)

Jewish people are attacked on the streets, synagogues are being attacked and smeared with swastikas etc.
You can condemn that and still think Israel is making a mistake in Gaza.

[–] Therealgoodjanet@lemmy.world 46 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (47 children)

This is absolutely true. Antisemitism is on the rise in many places. At the same time some organizations (like the ADL) mark everything anti zionist as antisemitist. This muddies the water and takes away from the actual stuff some people have to go through with antisemitism. Their stories deserve to be heard and not getting drowned out by claims that have nothing to do with antisemitism.

I don’t think the OP you’re replying to means to say that antisemitism isn’t on the rise, it’s just hard to know how much is actual antisemitism and how much is marked as antisemitism when it’s just criticism of Zionism and/or the state of Israel.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 3 points 11 months ago

The ADL has been calling the demonstrations by Jewish Voice for Peace anti-Semitic. I don't doubt there's a rise of incidents, but it's always a good idea to look at who's providing the numbers and what they consider an incident.

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[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] blazera@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No ones saying theres no genuine antisemitism going on. Even in the 854 incidents of "offensive behavior" im sure is plenty of nazi ideology eugenics wanting jews killed. But im skeptical of the totality of this number being antisemitism.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 11 months ago (5 children)

I'm not sure how important it is that every one of these 854 incidents be slurs versus miscounted anti-Zionist remarks, violent attacks and assaults on Jews minding their own business in grocery stores is alarming and deplorable. Jews in Germany aren't, like, participating in Israeli politics. The IDF doesn't poll Jews across the globe asking who they should shoot. Jews shouldn't be concerned about hiding their Judaism to avoid being the target of hate.

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[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (8 children)

That's definitely a genuine piece of antisemitism and people doing shit like that need to be arrested pronto... but I'm still uncertain like the OP. Though maybe the uncertainty is just being jaded by American organizations like the AJC.

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[–] SCB@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Among the 994 antisemitic incidents, there were three cases of extreme violence, 29 attacks, targeted damage to 72 properties, 32 threats, four mass mailings and 854 cases of offensive behavior.

So at least 10% of this number are actual violence.

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[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Someone will say something similar any time antisemitism is discussed in any context. Whatever your intention, it has the effect of minimizing and normalizing antisemitism. The article is clear that only a fifth of incidents are even tangentially related to Israel at all. Attacking or threatening German Jews or destroying their property isn't criticism of Israel. Marking Jewish homes with a Star of David or firebombing synagogues isn't supporting Palestinians.

'Criticism of Israel' shouldn't mean giving cover to Nazis.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

While I agree that’s true, it’s also the case that Israel has both conflated itself with Jewish people globally to claim criticism of itself as antisemitism, as well as committed actual atrocities against non-Israeli Jewish people as a means of propaganda to promote the idea that nowhere is safe for Jewish people except Israel. This muddies the water and makes it difficult to accurately discuss and criticize actual antisemitism, to the benefit of Israel and to the detriment of Jewish people.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Even if that's true, Jewish people are not collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. In that case, you'd have an argument for not trusting the Israeli government. You can't extend that to German Jews (in this case) or groups that monitor antisemitism in Germany without it also being an implicit argument about why you can't trust Jews.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It’s more of a “boy who cried wolf” scenario. Many have become numb to accusations of antisemitism, because the term is frequently used incorrectly. Israel, along with Pro-Israel groups in Europe and the US (who may or may not themselves be Jewish) are frequently guilty of misusing the term. This article even states that 21% of counted incidents were anti-Israel, and a further 5% were anti-imperialist. Including those in the overall count is just incorrect unless they are also antisemitic in some other way, and because of that people are right to be skeptical of claims like in this headline. It’s not skepticism of Jewish people, it’s skepticism of people who seem motivated to call anti-Israeli acts antisemitic.

The solution here also isn’t to stop reporting on antisemitism. Doing so is important and should be recorded and reported correctly. The solution is that anti-Israeli acts cannot be included in those statistics, and people with a specific motivation to do so shouldn’t be the ones reporting.

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[–] blazera@kbin.social 13 points 11 months ago (7 children)

And whenever groups criticize israel or support palestinians someone will call it anti-semitism, minimizing and normalizing the genocide of palestinians.

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[–] Infynis@midwest.social 7 points 11 months ago

Propaganda is a double edged sword.

[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Right, what Susan Serandon said in a less than ideal way is equated with firebombing.

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