Today, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser added the activities of Hamas and the Samidoun association, which gives a voice to Palestinian prisoners in Israel, to the list of banned organizations. “Anti-Semitism has no place in Germany”, stressed the minister. The ban on these groups was announced three weeks ago by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in response to the spontaneous and “disgusting” celebrations that occurred in this country after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7. Many demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinians have therefore been banned, to avoid expressions of sympathy towards Hamas and anti-Semitic slogans.
The Federal Criminal Police Office has registered 2,000 property damage crimes, hate speech and breach of peace since the attack by the terrorist organization Hamas against Israel. Violations related to pro-Palestinian events in Berlin have also played a larger role. The protectors of the Constitution and the surveillance centers are alarmed. The director of the Berlin Constitutional Protection Office, Michael Fischerspoke of a “very dynamic and very emotionalized and possible radicalization”.
The German authorities have been fighting for decades against the latent anti-Semitism that lurks in society and the ban on Hamas and Samidoun is a step in that direction, although it does not address the problem. Hamas has already been banned as a terrorist organization in the European Union since 2001 and has no structure in Germany. Here he has about 450 supporters. Samidoun is much smaller. He only has a few dozen followers and his activities were unknown other than another call for a demonstration in favor of Palestinian prisoners.
Since Israel’s bombings in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas attacks, the Center for Research and Information on Antisemitism has counted 202 “verified” anti-Semitic incidents, which represents an increase of 240% compared to that period of the previous year. Among those anti-Semitic incidents is the attack on a synagogue in Berlin Mitte and the throwing of Molotov cocktails at a building, which also houses children’s facilities.
All of these attacks have been linked by the political class to refugees and people of immigrant origin from Muslim countries. Alexander Dobrindt, head of the parliamentary group of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CDU), spoke in the newspaper Bild of “imported anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel”, while the head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Lars Klingbeil, demanded that German passports be denied to asylum seekers who had anti-Semitic attitudes.