https://youtu.be/DfK10unkiGw?si=4twK-mTyS751hvYu
How Germany’s fight against anti-Semitism is empowering the far right | Featured Documentary
Al Jazeera English
50,287 views Sep 11, 2025
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Prominent Jewish Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein returns to his ancestral home, Germany, to investigate how the country’s impulse never to repeat the horrendous anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust has resulted in the suppression of any criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza.
With critics of Israel being sacked, cancelled, silenced, arrested and banned from Germany, one Jewish philosopher has called this a “McCarthyism” for the 21st century. We’ll see how in today's Germany, a nation that killed most of his family but granted him citizenship in 2011, Loewenstein is told, as a Jew, what is acceptable to say about Israel. To find out why the German authorities are so committed to stifling any criticism of Israeli actions and what it means for democracy and human rights in the country, he will meet those being arrested and suffering job losses for criticising Israel, the people enforcing these laws and those on the far right claiming to support Israel.
The journey will reveal the ultimate irony - how determination to fight anti-Semitism is actually being used to empower the very forces, the far right, with the closest ties to Germany's dark fascist past.
Original film title: Germany’s Israel Obsession
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#Germany
#Palestine
Transcript
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Transcript
[Music] Germany
for centuries the industrial and cultural powerhouse of Europe.
Since the 1990s, it's also been hailed as a beacon of tolerance, free speech,
and creative expression. [Music] But that tolerance never extended to
discussion of Israel and Palestine. Is justified.
My people are occupied. My people are occupied. And after the October 7th, 2023 Hamas
attacks and Israel's subsequent war on Gaza, the authorities clamp down even
harder. Artists are having shows canled. People
are losing jobs. Yesterday, I got fired. Activist houses are being raided by the police for a
tweet. And protesters against the war have felt the full force of German law.
And what I find shocking as a German citizen and a Jew is that all this is
being done in my name in the name of protecting the Jews. Everything you see in here, it's purely
anti-semitic. It's hatred for Jews. [Applause]
[Music]
I've come back to Germany, my ancestral home, to investigate why this is being
done in the name of Jews. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I'm
known as Anthony Loenstein. But if it weren't for the Nazis, I'd probably be living here in Dresden, and you'd know
me as hair lenstein. So this is 21 Schuman Stras. So we're
looking for 31, I guess, is around somewhere here. This street is where my
family's home in Dresden before World War II was based.
My great-grandparents, Paul and Johanna Lenstein, were part of Dresdon's thriving Jewish community. They ran the
family tailoring business specializing in silk ribbons. There was a large Jewish community in
Dresden back in the day. Knowing what it used to be, that's the moving part about it.
[Music] We collect here to lay the stumble
stones for the Lenstein great grandparents of Anthony.
Germany has been praised for coming to terms with its role in the Holocaust. Ceremonies like this help the country
remember and the phrase never again is a national slogan.
Johanna and Paul Luvenstein were deported from the old Leik train station
to Awitz and murdered immediately upon arrival.
On the same day they lost their life, their grandson Jeffrey was born in
Australia. [Music]
This is the old lipstick train station where my great grandparents left Dresdston for Avitz.
This station during the World War II was used as a key place to send Jews to their
death. In all, 6 million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis in a
mechanized industrial genocide. They also killed over 5 million others,
including Soviet prisoners, political opponents, Roma homosexuals, and disabled people. I'm glad that some in
Germany want to remember that. However, the lessons that too many in Germany are
taking from that history is the wrong history.
It is a belief that if you support the memory of people like my family who were
killed that gives you the right and in their view responsibility to support
crimes elsewhere namely in Palestine. So Germany is a massive backer of Israel
and I want to be in Germany to understand how this hypocrisy and
contradiction works in reality. This is the second largest supplier of weapons to Israel after the US. In
Berlin, the center of German politics, this relationship is a subject of hot debate. This really shows the more
contested space. So you have someone who's written Islam kills. The other
side here also has F Hamas, but also below that is F the IDF. This is just in
one doorway. [Music]
[Music]
The sentiments are reversed across town in Noon.
[Music] Waffa say has become a social media
sensation through her Palestinian folk songs. I'm meeting her to get a sense of life here for the largest Palestinian
community in Europe. None is filled with Arabs and Palestinian especially most of
the Arab majorities not only live here but also they shop here but now it's connected with police and problems and
violence just too much sometimes
as the center of the Arab community in Berlin. This was also the center of protest against the war on Gaza and of
the police's response. You would be rethinking coming with a
kufia to this street cuz you just be grabbed from the police. They follow the
people who are demonstrating towards this street specifically and they follow them into the restaurants and they
arrest them. Caution. This is a crazy street.
This says like free Palestine and this is glory to resistance. It's everywhere. Everywhere.
We're walking towards AAM restaurant. Very local, very humble uh breakfast
place. And I can see it's a Palestinian and the Palestinian flag. Waffer arrived 10 years ago from Gaza
and completed secondary school in Germany. Have you experienced more racism or
islamophobia since October 7 here in Germany? It has started since the day I
entered the school. One time my favorite history teacher, we were talking about
World War II. I said, "Well, we're as Palestinian. We're not against Jewish for sure. We're against Zionist." And
she's like, "Zionists? You're not allowed to say that word." And everyone was like, "Zionist means
that they want to kill and take everything in this planet." And still now many people don't believe and accept
and understand that what is going going on in Palestine and in Gaza is that bad
cuz they acknowledge the the the the misery or like what happened to the Jews
people and for me to come and say yeah also the Palestinian are also suffering
they don't accept that. So, how does this refusal to recognize what's happening in Palestine shape how Germany
deals with criticism of Israel's war? Sustainability expert Salah also helps
organize protests against Israel's war, which attracts the attention of the authorities
and of the right-wing German media.
It began with the post he made about the war back in 2023. If you walk through the streets of
Berlin, you will see Israeli flags on every governmental building. I felt
underrepresented, misrepresented. I felt the need to ask people to write letters to the mayor to ask him why
there's only an Israeli flag, why there's not also a Palestinian flag. It was a very simple post saying this is
the email address that you as a Berlin citizen can write to. And then what happened the next day?
The next morning, I found myself with three officers wearing their guns at my
front door. And they said, "Well, you made a post where you asked people to write a letter to the mayor's office."
And I said to them, "This is what I'm free to do as a citizen of this country." And they confirmed, "Yeah, you
haven't broken any laws." They told me that their bosses sent them to come to my home and to tell me very explicitly
that they are watching me. How many times have have the police visited your house?
The police showed up four times at my home. One of the visits was actually a raid at like 5:30 a.m. Um, eight
officers broke into my door. They pushed me to the wall. They went through my
personal belongings. Um, they immediately um seized my phone and uh
ever since I have not seen my belongings again. That's uh been over a year. What impact has that had on you
personally? I definitely don't feel safe in Germany anymore. I feel surveiled. I feel
repressed, especially since October 7th, Germany is
using its whole repertoire to crack down on the pro Palestinian movement. We see
the very extensive use of criminal law to criminalize free speech that is exercised in
solidarity with the Palestinian people. Alexander Gorski has been defending many activists caught by these laws.
Let me ask you practically about what this restriction of freedom of speech means. For example, if one says at a
rally on a sign, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Germany is
criminalizing this slogan based on the assumption that it was um made its own
by Hamas as an organization. And if you use that slogan, you're using the slogan
of a terrorist organization, which under section M86A of the German criminal code
is a punishable offense, which is obviously ridiculous.
[Applause] This slogan does not belong to Hamas. It does not belong to anyone. It's used by
Israeli human rights organizations. is used by the international solidarity movement, but also it's used by scionist
organizations and by the Israeli far right. So what does that mean practically? If you use that slogan in public in
Germany, you will be charged with the crime of using the slogan of a terrorist
organization. And if you shout that phrase at a rally,
you will be arrested and charged. There was a recent legal case where someone had a sign, I think, saying, "Have we
learned nothing from the Holocaust?" If you compare the situation in
Palestine or in Gaza specifically to the Holocaust, the state prosecutor will
charge such statements as folks forheads which is basically incitement of hate
which is um a very problematic legal norm because it severely limits free
speech. Obviously, the German state does not recognize the genocide in Gaza as
such. And therefore, they say if you compare that situation with the Holocaust, you're downplaying the Holocaust. And if you're an Israeli born
German Jew, just saying you're against the war in Gaza can get you arrested.
Amazing sign. Yeah, it got me into trouble because of this red triangle in the Star of David.
Iris Hefettz and Udi Raz are board members of the activist group Jewish Voice for a just peace in the Middle
East. This is my watermelon keeper symbolizes the color of the Palestinian flag. If
you want to believe the popular German media, there is nothing more dangerous for Jews than standing in solidarity
with Palestinians. Iris has been arrested five times for holding signs against the war.
A sign saying, "As an Israeli and a Jew, stop the genocide in Gaza. They
confiscated our signs and we were charged with with incitement for hate
speech. I thought, I mean, it's going to be great if it's going to be in court. I
don't I want to see the German judge who's telling me as an Israeli and a Jew that I'm not allowed to say stop the
genocide in Gaza. When they organized a conference about Palestine, they were demonized in the
media and hounded by police. The bank account of Yudishima was frozen
by the Berina Sparasa. This is a a bank that is stateowned. As the congress
started, as the first speaker started to speak, the Berina police decides that to
storm the venue, systematically destroyed hospitals,
clinics, apartment build for all people in the live stream. The
police is standing right in front of us. They turned off the electricity and
blocked the exit. They're even trying to take away this microphone. They said, "Well, these are Islamist
organizations and we're not going to let them speak here." Of course, protecting the Jews and and all this nonsense.
This is something that I shot in an old apartate studio in Johannesburg. That one there. That one there. This is from a theater
production I did in New York. Candice Breits is South Africanborn of Jewish descent whose show about South
African sex workers was cancelled after 3 years development with a German museum.
What had happened was at a protest which was Jewish and organized. We are German Jews. We are Israeli Jews,
South African Jews, Turkish Jews, American Jews, British Jews. Calling for the release of hostages and
an end to the war. This was taken to be far too critical of Israel.
The museum said they would not exhibit anyone who does not clearly position themselves against Hamas's terror. The
fact that Candice had condemned the Hamas attack on October 7th was ignored. I had been deemed unfit for a German
public institution. How all this has affected you personally. You're an artist. You live in Berlin. You're Jewish. You're
outspoken. Prior to the 7th of October, I was a very busy artist in this country and I
was exhibiting in public institutions in one way or another 12 to 15 times a
year. I um haven't worked in Germany since the 7th of October. Well over 200
cultural events, academic conferences, concerts, exhibitions, and poetry readings have been cancelled since
November 2023 due to participants views on Israeli policy. There is a vetting of
uh anybody who receives an invitation to a German public institution googling the
name of the person plus BDS, the name of the person plus Palestine, the name of the person plus Hamas, which of course
means needing to purge a huge number of people uh from the German cultural
conversation.
The German state wants to create fear within certain communities and I think they are succeeding by doing so. And I
also think that the crackdown on free speech if you take it as a combined
force of repression it leads us into a very worrisome direction. But that's not
all of it. Because what we have seen, especially now in recent months, is the instrumentalization of migration law in
order to go against the pro Palestinian movement. Migration law is mostly used
against Arabs. It's used by the withdrawal of their refugee status because they participated in the wrong
demonstrations and therefore receive expulsion orders.
Amin Raj is a Palestinian food vlogger currently facing deportation from Germany due to his activism.
So you run a very popular Instagram channel. Yes. Uh food blogging. Tell me a little bit
about that channel and why you do it. We hear always like there's a war in Palestine, there's apartheite, there's
um occupation, but no one talks about the Palestinian culture. No one talks about the Palestinian traditions. So I I
wanted to start something where I can talk about my culture. I can say this is Palestinian food.
But after October the 7th, he switched from recipes to informing his 85,000
followers about Israel's war on Gaza
and helped organize protests in his hometown of Hamburg.
[Music]
While there, he attended a rally celebrating the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for
three Israeli hostages. Amin's post showed people celebrating the releases
and a selfie of him near Zachary Zubed, the former head of the Alakam's brigade,
who spent at least 11 years of his life in Israeli prisons. To Israelis, he's a
notorious terrorist. To Palestinians, he's a hero of the resistance.
[Music]
While he was in Palestine, the right-wing alternative for Germany party asked Hamburg State Parliament if he
could be prevented from returning
in the West Bank. back to Germany.
[Music] house.
[Music] His lawyers were able to stop his deportation, but only by starting his
whole asylum application again from scratch. talk about the criticism that was made
in some parts of Germany that you were allowed to I guess be released and come
back into your country.
[Music]
Thank you for your very moving responses and I can smell the food. Yes.
So, should we should we eat? Yes, we can eat.
Fore [Music]
[Music] all Germans are taught about the Holocaust, that it must never happen again, and about the basic law, the
constitution which guarantees human rights for everyone. And what I found being here is that many are genuinely
shocked to find their country breaking those laws. Like Melanie Schvitzer, a human rights lawyer who no longer works
for the German government. Hi. Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you. Melanie was a senior policy adviser and
as the war on Gaza intensified, tried to voice her concerns that Israel was
breaking international law. I was a civil servant. I'm a functionary. So, I'm I'm doing the
working stuff where there's no no arena to um to basically voice the this
protest. So, I decided to become politically active to run as a candidate. Posting her legal analysis was key to
her campaign for the 2025 federal elections. In the last 24 hours, Israel has bombed
a hospital, has bombed civilian um locations. This is forbidden under
international law in any circumstances. During that period, your employer was
okay with that. What changed? I needed to change my profiles to be public and um I have also communicated
this to my whole hierarchy to my supervisors. I was very transparent with this and that was no problem.
But once her profile was public, the German media quickly realized she was also a civil servant.
It went on saying that I am apparently an anti-semite and um Israel hater.
Yesterday I got fired as a civil servant working at the Federal Ministry in
Germany. What was the official reason why you were seen to have done wrong? I apparently violated my u principle of
moderation when expressing my opinion privately. The only thing that I was asking for is Germany upholding its, in
my opinion, legal responsibility. It's calling for for for an end to the killing and maming of people and of
children. And how this is controversial is I cannot I cannot get my head around
this until today. The German media celebrated her sacking
as did many on social media. My life over the last 2 years has
profoundly changed. I never understood how this was possible, how um how
Germans could persecute Jewish people and so many others. I felt such a deep
shame about it. We should have learned that people have are all the same. They
have human rights and that you cannot just it never there's no justification for killing civilians.
The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin represents Germany's acceptance of responsibility for the genocide of 6
million Jews in the Second World War. It's the physical manifestation of the guilt people of Melany's generation grew
up with. But this acceptance of responsibility
came surprisingly late. According to philosopher Susan Nyman,
Germany had lost the war and a third of their territory and their cities were
bombed and in ruins and 7 million people were dead. So they like most people
focused on their own troubles. It took most Germans a good 40 years to
turn their self-image as being the greatest victims of the war to being the
greatest perpetrators. And this memorial was completed 20 years later in 2005.
The idea that we are the people who created the world's greatest crimes
became a very deep part of German identity in a way that's really very
hard to compare to anything else in the world.
They couldn't have a national identity based on, you know, blood and soil or
traditional patriotic virtues cuz that didn't work. So this became
really the cornerstone of German identity. To explore what this means for Germany
today, I'm going to meet Deborah Feldman. She wrote a best-selling book about her journey from an
ultraorththodox Jewish family in New York to a new life in Berlin. Deborah. Hi. Hi.
It's the basis for the hit TV series Unorthodox. In Germany, nobody's ever gotten fired
or lost their careers because they have been racist or sexist. There is no scandal that a German politician or or
public personality can survive in Germany except the scandal of anti-semitism. It's the most powerful accusation in the
country. It is the only accusation that really works and people are terrified of it. It becomes like a scepter
that politicians can wield in their own rhetorical battles and can use uh to
intimidate others when they need to. All you have to do is whisper the threat of
the accusation and your opponent is silent. And it's this scepter of anti-semitism
that German politicians have turned to when they feel threatened by certain groups.
In 2017, the right-wing Alternative for Germany party had become so popular they
entered the Federal Parliament. Their bases in the former Communist East
Germany, where living standards never caught up with the rest of the country. Against decades of government failure to
improve things, the AFD had a clear message.
It's the immigrants. While the AFD deny any links to neo-Nazi groups, their supporters have often
shared anti-semitic sentiments. Before he became an AFD representative in a regional parliament, Wolf Gang wrote in
a book, "Jews themselves brought about sufficient justification for the hostilities they had to face."
Absolutely shocking. But while the German establishment were terrified of the AFD's popularity, they
still didn't use their ultimate scepter. What Deborah Feldman called the
unservivable charge of anti-semitism was instead wielded against a very different group.
In 2017, there were protests right here. When Trump was moving the US embassy to
Jerusalem, the German media reported that thousands of people were saying
death to the Jews. [Applause] [Music]
The fact is none of this is true. But that didn't matter. And in 2018, the
first federal anti-semitism commissioner was created to rule on what was and was not anti-semitism with the support of
the AFD. There are now anti-semitism commissioners throughout government and
civil society in Germany. I'm meeting the commissioner for the Berlin Jewish community.
Good to meet you. At the moment, according to the polls, the AFD is the most popular opposition
party. Most of the crime statistics in Germany still show that the far right is
committing most of the anti-semitic crimes. What does that tell you about
the kind of incidents that where that you as a Jew and a Jewish community are
dealing with? I fear the far right because I know that they are against Jews in any way. At the
same time, statistics are not accurate. Direct attack on Jewish life
are happening far much more from the far left from Muslims, extreme left uh activists. They
are not only arguing in an antic way but they make
the parts of this town as a nogo area. part of the migrants
from uh uh who came from from Lebanon or from uh Palestine and uh who uh claim uh
u uh together with the far left to chase Jews in the town.
One of those supposed no-go areas is No, which I visited and I didn't feel
threatened at all. Let me ask you, there are a number of comments, statements, phrases that I
want to ask you whether you think you're anti-semitic. If someone in Germany says, "Hail Hitler," is that
anti-Semitic? Of course. What else? From the river to the sea, Palestine
will be free. There are three words which aren't said, which but which are always meant.
Palestine will be free from Jews. That's the point. Since October 7,
there's been a lot of pro Palestine marches here in Germany. Is your view that those marches should be illegal?
These rally, these marches are not pro Palestinian. They are anti-Israel.
But first of all, they are pro Hammers. This would make it very easy
to proton. What do you say to Jews who go on some
of these marches? Listen, in in every family
there are black sheets and they are fig levers.
He said a line that I've been accused of for 20 years that Jews like that are are
black sheep. They're kind of these crazy Jews who give a fig leaf to extremists.
That's exactly what I've been called for 20 years. That I'm Jewish and I support Palestine. Therefore, I'm kind of almost
a traitor to my cause. It is very clear that the kind of priority of the anti-semitism
commissioners has been to emphasize left-wing anti-semitism um or to say it's on par with the
right-wing, which is certainly not true in terms of the threat that it poses to Jews. The fact is that the majority of
anti-semitic crimes are um committed by the far right. Um that's been true um
all along and and remains true um according to the um police statistics,
but those things are not reported on um as much before slogans like from the
river to the sea were classified as hate crimes. 83% of anti-semitic crimes were
committed by the far right. This included violent crimes.
There was an attack on a synagogue in Hala in 2019 by a white German gunman.
A far-right conspiracy theorist tried to carry out a mass shooting motivated by
his anti-Semitic beliefs.
The door held and he went to a restaurant nearby and killed two people.
Despite the anti-semitic violence from the right-wing, they have ceased to be the story.
The farright will be treated as being racist, but not as being anti-semitic as
much. These things have been kind of decoupled in the public conversation. Talk a little bit about the AFD's
publicly expressed love for Israel. What is going on there? The IFD
understood that being pro-Israel um would make it possible to maintain um
being openly racist certainly and so the IFD has been very successful in doing that. How is it possible to use support
for one minority to mass discrimination against many others? I want to hear for
myself how the AFD pulls it off. So, we're heading to their stronghold in the former East Berlin.
[Music] We asked the AFD in two cities actually if we could speak to a representative
and the AFD in Berlin recommended Vadim has run as a candidate with the AFD. He
now works for a farright newspaper. Explain why you think so many Germans,
young and old, seem to be attracted to the AFD's message. The AFD um attracts the people because
they're addressing the problems which the country has. It is the migration right now. There's a kind of injustice
when they see how the migrants get treated over people who live longer here
and pay the taxes. I wanted to ask you who you think are potentially the biggest threats to the
Jewish population. Well, you should ask the the Jewish people and they will answer you that
it's mostly the Muslim population in Germany who is a threat for them. Right
now, we have rallies saying from the river to the sea. probably there are some Germans also but they're from the
left side not from the right. Yeah. But most of them are uh is the Muslim uh
migration. I find it kind of strange to be very uh
polite here that foreigners let's say taken their own politics and their agenda and force it
on the German society um when I would say that they're just guests here and
they should behave as guests. Why do you think the AFD is so strongly supportive of Israel?
The Israeli government has uh to deal with Islamists and the extreme forces of
the Islam in its own country uh and knows how to deal with them. We are
importing the same people with the same mindset into our
country and so it's just common sense to to talk and to speak and to work with somebody who shares the same values as
you. Vadim's vision for Germany is
I see this as a very dark vision. By equating criticism of Israel to anti-semitism, the AFD are able to
demonize Muslims and immigrants while denying that their position is racist.
This is possible because of how Germany has memorialized fascism, says Susan Nyman. The western narrative is
completely centered on the murder of six million Jews. Now, I'm not suggesting that that be forgotten,
but if you reduce fascism to anti-semitism,
you have a very different picture of the world than if you don't.
It took me years till it dawned on me there's a very famous saying of pastor
Martin Neimah. First they came for the communists but I was not a communist and then they came
for the socialists and then they came for the trade workers and then they came for the Jews last. But Nemo when he said
that was also just describing history. First they did come for the communists
and then they did come for the socialists. And if you forget that, which since the end of the Cold War, the
West has very much wanted us to forget, it's very easy for a right-wing party to
say, "Well, I'll support the state of Israel 150%."
So, I you can't possibly accuse me of being a neo-Nazi.
[Music] I fear that Jewish people have become
a convenient prop at this moment and the implication is almost too obvious to
spell out that it is only via the use of anti-democratic and repressive measures
that it is possible to safeguard Jewish life in this country.
So, is all this in my name? In the name of protecting Jews? To find out, I've
come to the annual Nagba Day demonstration where Palestinians commemorate the expulsion from their
homeland in 1948.
The police banned the demo from marching. So, the organizers went to court and had that overturned. But
things have changed again. The police has appealed this decision and has taken it to a higher court and
the higher court has decided that we are not allowed to march and it's going to be a stationary protest and it's been
constantly being justified that we pose a threat to society which is ridiculous because we are standing here against a
genocide
at Every protest where Palestine is an issue, the police inform the public what is banned or illegal for them to do.
[Music]
So, there's a wall of police behind me. There's a cop standing on the police van there. And you have to wonder why they
need so many police just for a peaceful protest. [Music]
Why are you here today for this protest? Um, so I actually drove with a couple of my friends for four hours here because
Berlin is the capital of anti-Palestinian oppressions here in Germany. It's definitely something that we can't leave them alone with. So we
try to come from all over Germany to support. But fearing trouble with the police, many people did stay away as around
1,000 protesters were met with 800 police.
[Music] After all these police over there who were violently grabbing people who were
peaceful, they were literally standing there and the crowd is really angry because look at this. We can see it.
It's crazy. They're just being pushed for no reason at all. It's just madness.
Holy
holy [ __ ]
[Music]
We saw police what seemed to be unprovoked hitting the protesters.
Police never attacks violently. It's a use of legal force. Go into the crowd
and arrest certain people. Have now 25 people arrested in the last hour. We
have one police officer who is severely injured and had to be transported to the hospital from emergency medical service
and our colleagues. After the protest, the media reported police claims that officer BE24111
was dragged into the crowd by protesters, pushed over and attacked.
The mayor of Berlin called it a cowardly, brutal act of violence that was attacking our constitutional state.
But an analysis by open- source forensic investigators forensis revealed a different story.
The officer entered the crowd to tackle a protester to the ground and was then pinned under other officers
as more police crammed into the area. The officer then punched at least three
protesters and it was in those attacks that he seemed to injure his hand.
I was curious to know how the police justified their behavior at these kinds of events. Have you seen things that you
as a police would see as anti-semitic? Everything you see and hear all afternoon through till the evening
today, it's purely anti-semitic. It's hatred for Jews.
This is the reason why police has to deploy so many officers because out of this anti-semitic slogans and slurs and
hate crime things, it escalates every time. Emily Dishbekcka thinks this
weaponization of anti-semitism is facilitating the slide into authoritarianism.
[Music] It undermines a coherent opposition to authoritarianism.
A number of leftists will say these people are anti-Semitic or we do have to deport these people. You need liberals
to be complicit on the road to fascism. Stop abusing people. Which is exactly what is happening, says
Salah. It was not the far right that has banned the Kofia or the protests or the
Palestinian flag. It was not the far right that has criminalized me and
others. It was very much the centralist parties.
All of them came together and said we have no right to exist here.
[Music] I think people who are now justifying the acts of the Israeli government in in
Palestine, in Gaza and also in the West Bank, they would have they would have supported the Nazi regime as well. It's
taking parts of my soul away that I don't I feel I don't belong into
the society and and this is not what I why I studied law.
Melanie isn't alone suggesting a similarity with the leadup to fascism in the 1930s.
Palestinian journalist Aia Copty says there's an eerie silence from ordinary Germans.
There is atmosphere of of terror play in place in Germany when it comes to
conversations around Palestine. We live here for 10 years and we know a lot of Germans. Many of them were avoiding us
uh since the beginning of the genocide. Avoiding even asking checking on us how do you feel? What's going on? In times
that you are watching your own people being shredded and starved and bummed. This is submission to me. I strongly
feel that this genocide would have not been possible without the silence of the
people. And while the silence is being enacted in the name of Jews, Deborah Feldman
feels that a genuine anti-semitism lurks not very far from the surface.
I have experienced anti-semitism. It's mostly from Germans.
I've had people stop me on the street. I can see in their faces their rage that
I didn't cooperate with their idea of of my role as a Jewish person in this country. I didn't come here to make them
feel good about themselves. And so they're angry. I remember I went to a panel discussion and at some point one
of the Germans on stage said Nazis aren't the problem anymore. It's Muslims that are the problem. And I and I stood
up and I said, "Did you really just say in a country where 25% is voting for the
far right, you know, like where where the right wing is like murdering people actually like attacking synagogues and
you're saying that they're not the problem anymore?" And then someone from the audience got up and turned around
really loudly and said in German, "We all know who you are
towards you." Yes. All of a sudden, the mask was dropping. You know, that polite,
humane face was dropping. And behind the mask, there was like the demon.
What did you think that meant? It's a threat. I had a man say to me,
"It's going to be so much fun." He said to me, "Uh, when we can come after you
again." Well, meaning some Germans are looking forward to kicking you out of the country or
something much darker. People from the AFT party have made clear to me that it is their intent uh
when they are in power to have me arrested uh and to eventually have me deported. I think it will start with with brown people and I think it will
then move on to left-wing Germans and so on. But I think it is inevitable that I am eventually um you know in that line.
This is the Saxonhousen camp just an hour from Berlin. This is the infamous
Nazi line that was above all death camps. Arbak Mak Fry, which is work sets
you free. Visiting a concentration camp similar to one where my own family were
murdered is an intensely emotional experience. At times like this, words fail you.
Even though much of the camp's physical history here has been erased, they've preserved the bunk house used for Jews.
This is the dormatory of where a lot of people slept.
The thing that really hits you when you come here is the sense of there's always the risk of death, of torture, of
attack, of forced labor, of not getting enough food.
This is the kind of stuff that was everywhere in Germany. The Jew is our misfortune. He is the enemy of
everything noble and good. Fight against jury. Jews unwanted. This really just
shows the kind of Nazi era, Jew hatred that was put in the public.
And there are clear echoes with what we are seeing today in the press about immigrants and Muslims.
[Music]
I'm in the execution trench at the Nazi death camp.
I came to Germany wanting to investigate how Germany and Germans view this
history. How is it manifesting itself today?
Honestly, what I've seen and heard is that Germany is fundamentally misunderstanding what happened here.
That they are transferring their guilt, their justified guilt onto Palestinians,
onto Arabs, onto Muslims, onto those who are not white Germans.
As a German and a Jew, any sane person would reject that 110%.
The fear I have is that we've seen Germany is moving to a really dark authoritarian future. Free speech is
threatened. Association is threatened. The far right's in the ascendancy.
And that's a pretty dark prospect considering German history.
But even in the concentration camp museum, there's evidence of disscent.
Well, as someone has written here, from the river to the sea, free Palestine, f Nazis, which I'm surprised they've left
up here. And here, free Palestine stopped the genocide.
[Music] But the far right's embrace of Israel is
not confined to Germany. By buddying up to ethnationalists like Donald Trump in the US,
it's nominating you for the peace prize which is welld deserved. And Victor Orban in Hungary, Netanyahu
gains diplomatic cover for Israeli actions in Palestine. In return, they get to launder their discrimination.
Israel is the washing machine of of rightwing policies today in the world. This is the
way that they can identify with a state who is an ethno state. Meanwhile, the
unservivable charge of anti-semitism is used in many countries as the excuse to repress those campaigning against
Israel's war on Gaza. In July 2025, the UK government declared direct action
group Palestine Action a terror group after they broke into a base and painted planes used in Britain's actions in the
Middle East. An MP from the ruling Labour Party said the non-violent group was committing a campaign of
anti-semitic harassment.
In the US, they're also using the immigration system to silence critics.
And the US Department of Education is investigating 60 universities for anti-semitic discrimination and
harassment. I'm a student here. Don't fail. effectively gagging anyone who opposes
what legal experts and human rights organizations are calling a genocide in Gaza.
[Music]
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독일의 반유대주의 투쟁이 어떻게 극우 세력을 강화하고 있는지를 다룬 알자지라 잉글리시의 다큐멘터리, **"독일의 이스라엘 집착(Germany’s Israel Obsession)"**에 대한 요약본입니다.
이 다큐멘터리는 유대계 호주인 저널리스트인 안토니 뢰벤슈타인이 조상의 고향인 독일을 방문해, 독일이 홀로코스트를 초래한 반유대주의를 되풀이하지 않으려는 노력이 역설적으로 이스라엘의 행동에 대한 비판을 억압하는 결과를 낳고 있다는 점을 탐구합니다.
이 영화는 이스라엘을 비판하는 사람들이 해고되거나, 활동이 취소되거나, 침묵을 강요당하고, 체포되며, 심지어 독일 입국까지 금지당하는 상황을 보여줍니다. 한 유대인 철학자는 이를 "21세기 매카시즘"이라고 비판하기도 했습니다. 뢰벤슈타인은 그의 가족 대부분을 잃게 만든 나라가 2011년 자신에게 시민권을 부여했음에도 불구하고, 유대인인 자신에게조차 이스라엘에 대해 어떤 말을 하는 것이 허용되는지 정해주고 있다고 말합니다.
다큐멘터리는 독일 당국이 왜 이스라엘 비판을 억압하는 데 그토록 집착하는지 밝혀내기 위해, 이스라엘을 비판했다는 이유로 체포되거나 일자리를 잃은 사람들을 만납니다. 또한 이러한 법규를 집행하는 사람들과 이스라엘을 지지한다고 주장하는 극우 세력도 만납니다. 이 다큐멘터리는 반유대주의에 맞서겠다는 의지가 실제로는 독일의 어두운 파시스트 과거와 가장 밀접한 관계를 맺고 있는 극우 세력을 강화하는 데 이용되고 있다는 역설적인 상황을 드러냅니다.
주요 내용은 다음과 같습니다.
역사적 배경: 이 영화는 독일의 국가적 슬로건인 홀로코스트에 대한 "두 번 다시는 없다(never again)"를 언급합니다. 하지만 독일 정부가 이 역사적 의무를 이스라엘에 대한 확고한 지지를 정당화하고, 이스라엘의 정책과 행동에 대한 모든 비판을 침묵시키는 데 사용하고 있다고 주장합니다.
친팔레스타인 목소리 억압: 다큐멘터리는 친팔레스타인 활동가, 예술가, 일반 시민들이 자신의 견해를 표현했다는 이유로 일자리를 잃거나 경찰의 급습을 받는 등 불이익을 당하는 사례를 보여줍니다.
반유대주의의 무기화: 영화는 이스라엘 비판자들을 침묵시키기 위해 반유대주의라는 비난이 강력한 도구로 사용되고 있다고 주장합니다. 예를 들어, 독일에서는 "강에서 바다까지, 팔레스타인은 자유로워질 것이다"라는 슬로건이 테러 조직의 슬로건으로 간주되어 불법화되었습니다.
극우 세력의 역할: 다큐멘터리는 극우 정당인 '독일을 위한 대안(AFD)'이 이스라엘을 지지하는 입장을 내세워 자신들의 인종차별적이고 반이민적인 의제를 숨기고 있다고 지적합니다. 이스라엘에 대한 비판을 반유대주의와 동일시함으로써, AFD는 자신들의 주장이 인종차별이 아님을 부정하면서 무슬림과 이민자들을 악마화할 수 있게 됩니다.
국제적 함의: 이 다큐멘터리는 이스라엘에 대한 비판을 억압하기 위해 반유대주의가 이용되는 현상이 독일에만 국한된 것이 아니라 영국, 미국 등 다른 나라에서도 벌어지고 있다고 결론짓습니다.
전체 다큐멘터리는 아래 링크에서 시청할 수 있습니다:
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