The number of anti-Semitic incidents raised last year in Germany, according to a Berlin newspaper which quoted a government report.
1,453 anti-Semitic incidents were perpetrated in 2017, including 32 incidents of physical violence, 160 incidents of vandalism, and 898 incidents of incitement to violence or hate speech directed at Jews.
The German government expects the figures to rise even further since the data provided by the states is not yet final, daily Tagesspiegel reported.
Most of the anti-Semitic incidents were due to extreme right-wing motivations: 1,377 incidents – 95 percent – were perpetrated by people holding extreme right-wing views. An additional 33 incidents were perpetrated by non-Muslim foreign citizens who hold anti-Semitic views.
Twenty-five anti-Semitic incidents were perpetrated “for religious reasons” by Muslims. Some of these Muslims are migrants, and others were born in Germany. In the last 17 cases, authorities did not succeed in identifying the motivation behind the anti-Semitic attack.
Last month, the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, passed a bill to implement tougher laws to tackle anti-Semitism, including the creation of a commissioner post to develop and carry out a strategy for rooting out anti-Semitic sentiment and crime.
