Merz says criticism of Israel in Germany has become pretext for hatred of Jews

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BERLIN (Reuters) -Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.

Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews, Merz said that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.

“‘Criticism of Israel’ and the crudest perpetrator-victim reversal is increasingly a pretext under which the poison of antisemitism is spread,” he said.

Germany is Israel’s second biggest weapons supplier after the U.S., and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, principally because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison”.

Last month, however, Germany suspended exports of weaponry that could be used in the Gaza Strip because of Israel’s plan to expand its operations there – the first time united Germany had acknowledged denying military support to its long-time ally.

The decision followed mounting pressure from the public and his junior coalition partner over the manmade humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel has severely restricted supplies of food and water.

In his speech in Berlin on Wednesday, Merz mentioned his about-turn, saying that criticism of the Israeli government “must be possible”, but added:

“Our country suffers damage to its own soul when this criticism becomes a pretext for hatred of Jews, or if it even leads to the demand that Germany should turn its back on Israel.”

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Writing by Friederike Heine; Editing by Kevin Liffey)