Germany is rethinking its approach to combating anti-Semitism after a protest against US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital turned the anti-Jewish prejudices of some Muslim immigrants into a national issue.
In the month since immigrants burned an Israeli flag at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and chanted anti-Semitic slogans, politicians have proposed appointing a federal commissioner on hate crimes against Jews, making Auschwitz visits obligatory for newcomers and requiring German history tests in cultural integration courses.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s struggle to form a government after an inconclusive general election on 24th September has held up any clear decisions on the issue.
But with Holocaust Memorial Day coming up on 27th January, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz, her Christian Democrats have decided to wait no longer. They want the Bundestag, the German parliament, to pass a resolution calling for migrants who promote hatred of Jews to be expelled.
Read the full article written by Tom Henegan at Sight Magazine.