Israeli president says Jews are UNSAFE in Germany and accuses the government of anti-semitism over warning about wearing traditional yarmulke
- Germany’s government commissioner on anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, said Jews should not wear the skullcap at all times in Germany
- Anti-Semitic crimes rose by 20 percent in Germany last year, with nine out of ten incidents blamed on the far right
- But Reuven Rivlin said the comments were a ‘capitulation to anti-Semitism’
Israel’s president said today that Jews are unsafe in Germany after a government official warned about the dangers of wearing a traditional yamulke skullcap.
Reuven Rivlin said the warning by Germany’s government commissioner on anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, was a ‘capitulation to anti-Semitism’.
Klein said in an interview yesterday: ‘I cannot recommend to Jews that they wear the skullcap at times everywhere in Germany.’
Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin (right), pictured with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has criticised Germany’s warning about the dangers of wearing a Jewish skullcap
The number of anti-Semitic incidents rose in Germany last year, according to government statistics released earlier this month.
Rivlin said Klein’s remarks ‘shocked’ him, and while appreciating the German government’s ‘commitment to the Jewish community,’ accused it of bowing to those targeting Jews in Germany.
Felix Klein said he had changed his mind after latest statistics revealed a rise in anti-Semitism
The Israeli president said: ‘Fears about the security of German Jews are a capitulation to anti-Semitism and an admittance that, again, Jews are not safe on German soil.
‘We will never submit, will never lower our gaze and will never react to anti-Semitism with defeatism – and expect and demand our allies act in the same way.’
Anti-Semitic crimes rose by 20 percent in Germany last year, according to interior ministry data which blamed nine out of 10 cases on the extreme right.
Klein, whose post was created last year, said while the far-right was to blame for the vast majority of anti-Semitic crime, some Muslims were also influenced by watching certain television channels ‘which transmit a dreadful image of Israel and Jews’.
Klein’s comments came just weeks after Berlin’s top legal expert on anti-Semitism said the issue remains entrenched in German society.
Claudia Vanoni said: ‘Anti-Semitism has always been here. But I think that recently, it has again become louder, more aggressive and flagrant.’
Germany has a culture of atonement over atrocities committed during World War II, during which the ruling Nazis orchestrated the murder of some six million Jews in the Holocaust.
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