Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

German government reports rise in extremist crimes, partly due to Israel-Hamas war

While the report says threats stemming from right-wing extremism still outweigh those coming from other ideologies, it notes “a growing danger that antisemitic agitation will increasingly poison the social climate”

(JTA) — BERLIN – The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is one of the factors motivating a rise in extremist crimes in Germany, according to a new government report.

The report, published on June 18 by Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, tallied 39,433 crimes with an extremist background in the country in 2023, nearly 4,000 more than in 2022.

The increase “should alarm us all,” said the agency’s president, Thomas Haldenwang, in a statement announcing the new findings. While the report says threats stemming from right-wing extremism still outweigh those coming from other ideologies, it notes “a growing danger that antisemitic agitation will increasingly poison the social climate.”

Statistics released earlier this year by the government showed that antisemitic crimes nearly doubled in 2023 over the previous year.

The annual report published this week, which is nearly 400 pages long, contains a chapter on the effects of the Israel-Hamas war, noting “the impact that Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza have had on the security situation in Germany.”

Various extremist actors have used the conflict to call for hatred and violence against Jews or the State of Israel or to deny its right to exist, the report said, adding that Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions are at ever greater risk. It also noted that German right-wing extremists are using the current tensions to agitate against Muslims and migrants.

“Antisemitism and hostility towards Israel often appear as connecting elements” between a wide range of agitators — including Islamist movements, Palestinian activists and Turkish and German extremists on both the right and the left.

The report came out shortly after German far-right candidates had a strong showing in European Parliament elections, alarming many German Jews. French and Italian far-right parties likewise gained seats in the European Union legislative body.

In a press conference Tuesday, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser noted that laws have been tightened to speed up the deportation of Islamists who are not German citizens, and to “ensure that no one who promotes hatred of Jews and Islamism can get a German passport.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.