Bullet-point Notes for presentation at the Civil Society Forum Workshop entitled: “Addressing Anti-Semitism against the Background of the Conflict in the Middle East” at the OSCE’S BERLIN CONFERENCE ON ANTI-SEMITISM AND CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM

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The Summer of 2014 – Operation Protective Edge in Germany

(Picture) Description of what we saw in the streets of Germany and elsewhere during the supper of 2014 / the protests in the streets of Frankfurt, Duisburg, Essen, Hannover, Munich and elsewhere, incl. the Al Kuds demonstration in Berlin

(Expanded picture version for the Internet)

• The anti-Israel demonstration in Frankfurt on July 12th, 2014 as an example of similar demonstrations seen throughout Germany and elsewhere in similar, if not worse forms…
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  Participants at the demonstrations
  • Various members from different immigrant groups, mostly Muslims – Turks, Arabs, Moroccans, Tunisians, etc.
    • Some so called extremists (Salafists), “burkas” and “bearded men”, but many, many modern looking, so called “moderate Muslims”  
    • 2^nd, 3^rd generation immigrants (import of problem / conflict onto the streets of Germany)
       
        
       
       
    • All age groups – starting from very young children
       
      
    • Masked (or partially masked) youths
       
      
       
  • “Gutmenschen” & “Peaceniks”
    
    
  • DIE LINKE (some DGB/trade unionists)
    
    
  • “Jews for a Just Peace in the Middle East” / Extreme left Israelis
  • Bystanders

• Organizers:
  (Overall extremely well organized, materials & slogans shared nationwide, large numbers of “orderly”/staff to control crowd; generally extremely heated up / hostile and violent crowds)
  1. Turkish groups, Pro-Palestinian groups, Muslim communities, charities and mosques
  2. Supporters included:
     • DIE LINKE
     • Pax Christi
     • “Jews for Just Peace in the Middle East”
     • Peacecamp
     • BDS Movement

• Slogan chanters:
  1. Young children (frequently girls) – very emotional & enciting a very hyped up atmosphere
  2. Youths and young adults
     • mostly very hate filled – anti-Israel but also anti-Semitic
     • some more intellectual type speeches particularly aimed at German participants, media and bystanders
  3. Preachers (mostly in Arabic)
     

• Posters / Repeated Slogans, incl. blatant anti-Semitism:
  • Holocaust / Hitler comparisons
  • DemonizationDelegitimization
  • Günter Grass
  • Jesus was a Palestinian
  • Questioning of special relationship between Germany and Israel
  • etc. (see Pictures)
  • 
    
    
     
     
     
     
     
    
     
      
     Similar, if not the same messages could be seen at the Al-Kuds Demo in Berlin, Bremen, Düsseldorf, München, Kassel, Duisburg, Wien and other demos – sometimes with displays of extreme violence – always inciting not only against Israel, but against Jews in general:
    
     
    
    
    
    
    

    France was, of course, even worse…
    
    

• Imagery:
  • Palestine = All of Israel
     
    
  • Shocking victim pictures from Syria & elsewhere
    
  • Erdogan the hero
     
     

• Flags:
  • Hamas
  • Hezbollah
  • ISIS
  • Flags of Turkey, Palestine, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and other Arab countries
    
    
    

• Making oneself a victim:
  • Claiming Islamophobia and downplaying anti-Semitism
  • Trying to unite all Muslims against Israel and creating unity among muslims by claiming that the West is supposedly united against Islam
     

• The role of the police / insufficient legal means to react:
  • Use of police cars, loudspeakers, megaphones
    
  • No reaction to Arab speeches & slogans (e.g. “Kaybar Al Jahud“), posters & more
    –> insufficiently prepared with translators & too many slogans not considered “illegal”.
  • No reaction to terrorist flags
    –> insufficient legal means to react to such flags & slogans
    • … while removing & even confiscating Israeli flags because these are considered as “incitement”
  • Fencing in the pro-Israel groups “for their protection”, while not reacting to Pro-Palestinian demonstrator excesses for fear of violence
    
  • –>On a positive note: some criminal complaints by police filed in retrospect, incl. complaints filed by policemen

Important to realize:

• –> New tactic: Anti-anti-Semitism AND anti-Zionism, e.g. at Al Kuds day in Berlin
• –> The anti-Semitic displays from 2014 are anything but new. They are a repeats of images seen at previous demonstrations, e.g. in 2009 & 2010!!!
  • 2009:
     
    
    
    
     
    
      
  • 2010:
    
    
    
     

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Grassroots counter-rally protests & why it was so difficult to get groups of people to fight anti-Semitism visibly and in public / the role of civil society actors in reversing the wave of anti-Semitic discourse and action / approaches in combating anti-Israeli stereotypes

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• Berlin (organized by Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralat) and not some other (non-Jewish) political or civil society group or organization!!!)
  • “Stood up and now what…?!?!”
    –> Stood up and sat down again!
     
  • Only some 5.000 attendees, despite major campaign in advance, incl. media (especially BILD)
    
    • Tremendous lack of support from civil society!
  • Normally this event should have been organized by anyone BUT the Zentralrat!
  • Attendees included
    • false friends, incl. AFD
      
    • and open enemies: Anti-Anti-Semitism & Anti-Zionism, “Jews for a Just Peace”, etc.

• Frankfurt (2 Protests – Opernplatz, then Römer):
  • Important new alliances:
    –> Kurds, Jews, City officials, Christians, friendship alliances, trying to incorporate moderate muslims
     
     
    
  • Speakers:
    –> big shot names for the media; representatives they can identify with for the crowd
  • Style–> Formal or more leisurely with Music

• Approaches:
  • Pro-Israel, against anti-Semitism and Pro-Peace
    –> commemorating ALL victims, while clearly differentiating between aggressor and “Defender”
  • Facts, Images, simple to share material
  • Fast info sharing in reaction to news (video and photo sharing important)
  • Role of the new media – especially Facebook and Twitter

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• Aftermath:
  • Death threats and other verbal attacks after publicizing Frankfurt & other demos
  • Threats against at least two Bundestag members (MdB Connemann and Engelmeier)
  • Threats & vandalism directed against activists (e.g. 2 assaults on Elishewa Patterson, threats against Frankfurt Rabbi (that 20 members of the community would be murdered for every Palestinian family member hurt in conflict) and vandalism in the office of Tobias Huch)
  • Physical attacks against Jews (people with Jewish symbols (Magen David) beaten up in the streets)
  • No-go Areas, e.g. in Neukölln
  • Role of the new media – especially Facebook and Twitter
  • Chatrooms / Facebook / hate mails / insults
  • Death threats against School Speaker (Offenbach)
  • Stories shared with me by student group, with whom I held a workshop abaout anti-Semitism (19 out of 20 students had anti-Semitic, hate filled stories they shared with me about experiences they had in school and in their day-to-day lifes)

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On a positive note:

• In the aftermath to the summer of 2014, a journalist from the ZDF (second German public TV) invited me to take part in a filmed meeting with one of the activists, who participated in the Frankfurt protest, which I had documented in some detail. While this activist knew exactly who I was, I did not know that he was in fact one of the main “inciters” during the protests and that I had in fact photographed him a number of times (photos I looked at only after the meeting). He, on the other hand, had even seen his photos on my Facebook page. From that perspective, the meeting was extremely interesting. For him, I was the pure devil, the guy who supposedly blindly defended each and every action of the IDF, the guy who was supposedly fighting against an independent Palestinian state, the guy who was supposedly considered every Palestinian to be a terrorist and the guy who supposedly claims that each and every criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic and so forth. Nonetheless, he was curious to meet me and when we moved beyond the stereotypical slogans, which he had heard in the Arab media and read about in the one sided forums he frequents, he had to realize, that there was far more to me than he had imagined and that there were in fact a lot of things that I was saying that he could agree with: that Hamas was abusing the Gaza population; that Hamas was using innocent children as human shields; that schools and mosques were being used as weapons storage places; that the IDF warned people prior to attacks on buildings; and so forth. Likewise, he had to realize, that I very much condemned civilian deaths and that I am very much able to be critical of Israeli political and military actions, the only (major) difference being that I was differentiating between the initiators of the violence and the people defending themselves. And while I learned that he was very much blended – if not brainwashed – by the hatred he had been exposed to, I learned that he was really nothing but a concerned individual, who condemns innocent bloodshed. And while the meeting was far too short to make major headways, we left the meeting giving each other a short hug, promising to meet again and to consider trying to make a headway towards peace on a 1 on 1 basis, hopefully bringing in more individuals in the future…
    

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In addition to this photo documentation, please also see this video selection of Youtube clips from different German cities filmed throughout the summer of 2014:
CLICK HERE