A German state commissioner against anti-Semitism liked an Oct. 15 Facebook post from an account calling for “Zionists, Nazis” to unfriend him, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The post in question read, “Zionists, Nazis and radicals should quickly remove themselves from my friends list.” Baden-Württemberg Commissioner Against Anti-Semitism Michael Blume liked the post.
The Post noted that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism lists comparisons of Israel and Israel supporters to Nazis as an example of criticism of Israel that veers into anti-Semitism.
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Post, “German Jews deserve a total commitment to fight antisemitism in all its ugly manifestations. If they cannot rely on all authorities to lead an aggressive and unequivocal fight to weed out anti-Semitism – whatever its source – the future of Jews in Germany is in serious doubt.”
In March, the Post reported that Blume compared blogger Malca Goldstein-Wolf, a critic of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, to Adolf Eichmann, who is considered to be one of the main Nazi architects of the Holocaust. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office head, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, called for Blume to step down at the time, telling the Post, “The comparison of this sort is outrageous and clearly shows that the commissioner has no grasp of issues related to anti-Semitism.”
The Post also noted that Blume “attacked Israelis on his blog last year and helped mainstream pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah politicians.”
Blume is not the only German official to draw controversy over liking a social media post in 2019. In July, German diplomat Christian Clages, who heads the German Mission to the Palestinian territories, liked an April 10 tweet from former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke about how “Jewish supremacists invaded the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin” in 1949. The German Foreign Ministry disavowed Clages’ like of the tweet and said they are investigating the matter.
The recent increase in anti-Semitism in the country has caused German Jews to feel “under siege,” especially after the Oct. 9 shooting at a Halle synagogue, the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 10. There was an increase of almost 20% in reported incidents from 2017 to 2018, according to the German Interior Ministry, although some in the German Jewish community argue that there are several instances of anti-Semitism that have not been reported.
American Jewish Committee Berlin Acting Director Remko Leemhius told the Wall Street Journal, “We have seen a rise in anti-Semitism for years now, we see it across society. We see it on the right, on the left, in Islamism, and in mainstream society. Right now, it feels like it’s coming from everywhere.”
