Germany will seek to block individuals who have committed antisemitic acts from ever gaining citizenship, the country’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday.
The minister said the new law brought before the German parliament provides a “clear exclusion of antisemites,” in a statement following a meeting with Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor.
As Germany faces a spike in antisemitic incidents amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Faeser said those who support the terror group will be “prosecuted with the full force of the law.”
Also on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid met Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who vowed that those who publicly chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in his country — a fixture of pro-Palestinian rallies seen as a call to wipe out Israel — will be criminally prosecuted.
Following Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7 on Israel and the ensuing Israeli war against the terror group in Gaza, police around the world have increased security for Jewish institutions.
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Last week, the Kahal Adass Jisroel community said its synagogue in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood was attacked with two incendiary devices. Police confirmed the incident.
„Was in Israel passiert, trifft auch uns ins Herz“, Innenministerin @NancyFaeser beim Gespräch mit dem israelischen Botschafter @Ron_Prosor. Das BMI setze alles daran, jüdisches Leben in Deutschland zu schützen und die Aktivitäten der Hamas und anderer Extremisten zu unterbinden. pic.twitter.com/82Rh6TGWmL
— Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (@BMI_Bund) October 25, 2023
There have also been several reported instances of Star of David symbols daubed on residential buildings in Berlin where Jewish people live, while Israelis living in the city have noted a rise in attacks and animosity from pro-Palestinian supporters.
Some 2,500 terrorists broke through the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air, and sea on October 7, killing some 1,400 people and seizing some 222 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.
In response, Israel launched an offensive it says is aimed at destroying Hamas’s infrastructure and has vowed to eliminate the entire terror group, which rules the Strip. It says it is targeting all areas where Hamas operates while seeking to minimize civilian casualties.
נפגשתי לפני זמן קצר עם קנצלר אוסטריה, קארל נהאמר.
במהלך פגישתנו סיפר לי הקנצלר כי בעקבות המתקפה על ישראל ב-7.10 הוא החליט כי כל אדם אשר יצעק את הקריאה ״מהים לירדן״ (הנתפסת כקריאה לרצח של ישראלים) ברחובות אוסטריה ייחשב כמי שעבר עבירה פלילית ויובא בפני בית משפט.
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— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 25, 2023
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that he was outraged by the antisemitic agitation spreading to Germany, and warned at the inauguration of a new synagogue that the vow of “never again” must be unbreakable.
On Sunday, more than 100 leading German corporations joined together to show their support for Israel and their opposition to antisemitism and the murderous October 7 onslaught.
In a full-page ad published in major newspapers in Germany with the headline “Never again is now,” the 106 undersigned companies, representing the bulk of the country’s economy employing millions of workers, denounced antisemitism and Jew hatred.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
