Germany has an anti-Semitism problem – especially among the Arab population. On the other hand, no anti-Semitism officer can help. Our values can only be conveyed through successful integration.
A guilty conscience is imposed on many Germans. You read about growing anti-Semitism, which is said to be spreading in the middle of society. Anti-Semitism commissioners are appointed in many regions to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. I feel nothing of these moods and can base this assertion on contacts in many groups and milieus.
I have never heard anti-Semitic statements from German fellow citizens, either in politics or in the media, neither among the public in top-class sport nor in small clubs, neither in the neighborhood or in social contacts, neither in private conversations or at events.
I am writing this as an outgoing person who addresses many and is addressed by many.
The Berliners, about whom a discriminatory report was spread a few days ago, must suffer from a particularly bad conscience.
In the “FAZ” and elsewhere one could read that Berlin was the “stronghold of the anti-Semites”.
The Berlin Research and Information Center on Antisemitism (RIAS) has published that it registered 1,052 antisemitic incidents in the past year, including attacks, threats and damage to property. When I asked RIAS how many of the perpetrators were German citizens and how many came from the Arab-Palestinian world, I was told that based on the data collected, no “statements could be made about the nationality of the perpetrators”. The distinction is important. Rarely is it pointed out that we often deal with imported anti-Semitism. Young men who were brought up to hate Jews as children fight hostilely against Jews and Israel.
They believe in hate slogans.
Some Arabs approached me at a gas station recently. They wanted to talk about politics. Always a pleasure. One said that we Germans were too friendly to the Jews and claimed that the Jews didn’t have to pay taxes in Germany. I’m afraid they didn’t believe me the truth.
Most likely, they will continue to spread this flourishing nonsense among their own kind and deepen the hatred already instilled. Unfortunately, they have many fellow misbelievers. No anti-Semitism officer can help against that. It is a daunting task of integration to convey our values to these immigrants. This begins with respect for facts and must end with the conviction that all people are equal.
This has never happened before: A city outlaws its mayor. While Frankfurt soccer players and their ardent supporters ride a wave of sympathy, their mayor has plunged into a valley of contempt.
A corruption charge, sexist remarks about stewardesses and his attempt to hijack the European Cup have ruined his reputation.
His own party, the SPD, is calling on him – just like the opposition – to resign, Eintracht Frankfurt no longer wants to see him in the stadium, and the media report his mistakes every day, but Peter Feldmann remains stubborn.
He bunkers in the town hall, hardly ever goes to appointments and wants to hold out until 2024.
He clings to his office because he knows that voting out the Frankfurt vote would be a tedious process.
FOCUS founding editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort has been a FDP member of the Bavarian state parliament since 2018.
