Report: Anti-Jewish Hate Crime in Berlin Doubles in Four Years

Berlin recorded a twofold increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes between 2013 and 2017, according to the latest German police figures.

A report in Tagesspiegel on Thursday revealed that police figures seen by the Berlin newspaper show that 288 crimes classified as anti-Semitic were recorded by the German capital’s police in 2017. This is slightly less than double the 149 crimes recorded in 2013.

Tagesspiegel reports that no analysis has been released with the figures to acurately explain the rise in anti-Semitic crime, but police and city officials have previously stated that they believe there is a correlation linking it to the increased number of migrants from the Middle East living in the city.

As Breitbart Jerusalem has reported, attacks on Jews in Germany have been on the rise nationally and are not limited purely to Berlin, although schoolteachers and other school officials in the capital have noticed a rising trend of anti-Semitism among pupils and say the expression “You Jew!” has become a common insult.

Last October the German Interior Ministry announced that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country had risen by four per cent since 2016 as some accused the government of presenting the crimes as coming from right-wing sources rather than radical Islamists and newly-arrived immigrants from the Middle East.

Such are the fears from Germany’s Jewish community that in January the German government appointed a special commissioner to address the problem. Although the commissioner’s powers are yet to be defined, the Central Council of Jews welcomed the move, calling it an important signal that their concerns were being addressed.

Current German methodologies for classifying anti-Semitic crime has in the past been criticized for its accuracy in identifying motives.  A special commission into anti-Semitism, which published a report last year, said that “there is likely a distorted picture of anti-Semitic crime which exaggerates right-wing motives and perpetrators.”

As for refugees from Muslim countries, they have been told to abandon their anti-Semitism and prepare to learn about the Holocaust, in twin warnings issued from the highest levels of government.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in 2017 that inbound immigrants must reject any lingering notions of anti-Semitism on arrival, saying acceptance of followers of the Jewish faith remains a “non-negotiable” part of the social contract with their new home.

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