By Judith Bergman, Gatestone Institute—
Almost all anti-Semitic crimes in Germany in 2019 were committed by right-wing extremists, according to a recently published government report, “Politically Motivated Crime in 2019.” In the report, “politically motivated crimes” are divided into right-wing crimes, left-wing crimes, crimes motivated by foreign ideology, crimes motivated by religious ideology and unassigned crimes.
According to the report, anti-Semitic crimes were 13% higher in 2019 than in 2018, with 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes committed in 2019, the highest number in Germany since 2001. According to the report, 93.4% of those crimes were committed by right-wing extremists.
“The biggest threat is still the threat from the right,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said following the release of the crime report. “We must remain alert and tackle it. It is an order of magnitude that accompanies us with concern, with great concern.”
The German government’s new report flies in the face of major EU reports: In November 2018, the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a report, “Antisemitism – Overview of data available in the European Union 2007–2017,” which quoted the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) as stating that in 2017:
“The main perpetrators of antisemitic incidents are ‘Islamists’ and radicalised young Muslims, including schoolchildren, as well as neo-Nazis and sympathisers of extreme-right and, in some cases, extreme-left groups”.
Germany was among the countries surveyed.
In another major survey conducted by the FRA and published in December 2018, “Second survey on discrimination and hate crime against Jews in the EU”, it was concluded that:
“With respect to the most serious incident of anti-Semitic harassment, on average, across the 12 Member States surveyed, the most frequently mentioned categories for perpetrators were: ‘someone else I cannot describe’ (31%); ‘someone with an extremist Muslim view’ (30%); ‘someone with a left-wing political view’ (21%); ‘work or school/college colleague’ (16%); ‘teenager or group of teenagers’ (15%); ‘an acquaintance or friend’ (15%); ‘someone with a right-wing political view’ (13%)”.
Germany was among the 12 member states surveyed. Continue Reading….