German leaders voice outrage and thousands rally in Berlin in reaction to rising antisemitism

BERLIN – Germany’s chancellor and president strongly denounced a upward push in antisemitism in Germany in the wake of the Israel-Hamas battle in separate appearances Sunday that wired the similar concept that it’s unacceptable for such hatred to flourish in the country that perpetrated the Holocaust.

In Berlin, thousands of other folks collected at an illustration referred to as to display opposition to antisemitism and enhance for Israel. People carried Israeli flags or posters with pictures of one of the vital other folks reported to be lacking or held through Hamas as hostages.

The protest, arranged through a extensive alliance of quite a lot of organizations, comes as antisemitic incidents were rising in Germany following the violent escalation of the war in Gaza.

“It is unbearable that Jews are living in fear again today — in our country of all places,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier instructed the ones collected in entrance of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. “Every single attack on Jews, on Jewish institutions is a disgrace for Germany. Every single attack fills me with shame and anger.”

Earlier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was outraged by the antisemitic agitation spreading as the Gaza war rages, and warned at the inauguration of a new synagogue that the vow of “never again” will have to be unbreakable.

Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in Berlin on Wednesday, and police protection has been increased for Jewish institutions. Scholz, who denounced the violence on Wednesday, expanded on his comments at the inauguration of the temple in Dessau, a city in eastern Germany whose synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis 85 years ago.

Both Scholz and Steinmeier denounced the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 while also voicing their concern for Palestinian civilians caught up in the conflict. But the thrust of their message was to address the fallout at home.

“I am deeply outraged by the way in which antisemitic hatred and inhuman agitation have been breaking out since that fateful October 7, on the internet, in social media around the world, and shamefully also here in Germany,” Scholz said. “Here in Germany, of all places.”

“That is why our ‘never again’ will have to be unbreakable,” Scholz stated as he collected with Jewish leaders on the Weill Synagogue, noting that the neighborhood has not too long ago grown because it welcomed other folks from Ukraine.

The synagogue is known as after German-born composer Kurt Weill, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933, and his father Albert Weill, who was once a cantor in Dessau.

“This synagogue here in the middle in Dessau says that Jewish life is and remains a part of Germany. It belongs here,” Scholz stated. “Germany will do everything to protect and strengthen Jewish life.”

Steinmeier also known as it a “civic duty” to oppose antisemitism in Germany.

Police have larger safety for Jewish establishments in Berlin and in every single place Germany.

Israeli flags that have been flown after the Oct. 7 assault as an indication of team spirit in entrance of town halls in every single place the rustic were torn down and burnt. Several construction in Berlin the place Jews are living had the megastar of David painted on doorways and partitions.

Also Sunday, cops surrounded contributors of a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Potsdamer Platz, which have been banned.