793 cases in the first quarter
The number of anti-Semitic crimes is increasing significantly
May 9, 2024, 4:01 p.m
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Since the radical Islamist Hamas attack on Israel, the number of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany has been increasing. There was another increase in the first quarter of this year. The chairman of the Central Council of Jews is calling for more deterrence.
According to a newspaper report, the number of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany rose significantly in the first quarter of the current year. Compared to the first three months of the previous year 2023, it increased from 381 to 793, as the “Welt” reported from a government response to a Left inquiry. The basis for the count is a list of incidents by the Federal Criminal Police Office.
According to “Welt”, these are preliminary figures that would usually be significantly increased again through “massive late reporting”. The 381 acts initially reported for the first quarter of 2023 were later revised upwards to around 643, the report said.
Looking at the statistics, Bundestag Vice President Petra Pau spoke of a “new dimension” of anti-Semitism that had been reached after the attack on Israel by the radical Islamic Hamas on October 7, 2023. The extent had already been “frighteningly high”. She demanded consequences. There has to be an end to “phrases,” Pau told the newspaper.
Deterrence as a solution
The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, also called for a tougher course against anti-Semitic perpetrators in the “Welt”: “At a certain point, only deterrence works – and this has to be tough.” There is an increasing threat “from all directions”.
According to the federal government’s response to the Left’s query, of the 793 anti-Semitic acts recorded between January and March, 385 were attributable to right-wing extremism. Four of these were violent crimes. 245 crimes were committed in the area of so-called foreign extremist ideologies. According to statistics, three of these were violent crimes.