SZ podcast “To the Point”: Where does anti-Semitism begin, Meron Mendel?

Since the beginning of the Gaza War, which has been raging for almost two years, the Federal Criminal Police Office has recorded a rapid increase in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic crimes in Germany. Most are committed by right-wing extremists, followed by religious extremists and crimes by the left.

The highly controversial slogan "From the River to the Sea," which essentially denies Israel's right to exist, is regularly chanted at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. It will be interesting to see whether this slogan will also be chanted this Saturday at the demonstration for peace in Gaza in Berlin, which the BSW has called for.

And then, most recently, the Munich Philharmonic's withdrawal from a festival in Ghent is causing outrage. The reason given was the conductor's Israeli origins and his allegedly unclear stance toward "the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv." According to the organizers' website, this is clearly anti-Semitism , according to State Secretary for Culture Wolfram Weimer and Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to Berlin.

But is it really that simple? The German-Israeli historian and educator Meron Mendel calls the Munich Philharmonic's case an "extremely senseless decision," but he says it is not antisemitic. Nor is all criticism of the Israeli government automatically antisemitic. After all, representatives of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu often exploit accusations of antisemitism.

In the podcast, the director of the Anne Frank Education Center in Frankfurt am Main advocates for a nuanced view of the Middle East conflict, rather than falling into a "pro-Israel" or "pro -Palestine " stereotype. He believes that education and dialogue are the only way to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination.

Other news: ICE raid on Hyundai employees in the US; fire on Greta Thunberg's Gaza flotilla; protest against Erdogan in Istanbul.

You can find the link to our SZ live blog on the Middle East war here.

You can read a report about the Munich Philharmonic's cancellation of a festival in Ghent here and the reactions here.

You can listen to our research podcast “Das Thema” about the brutal war in Sudan here.

"Auf den Punkt" is the Süddeutsche Zeitung 's daily news podcast on the most important topics of the day. You can find all episodes at sz.de/nachrichtenpodcast . Don't miss an episode and subscribe to our audio offerings in your favorite podcast app or on iTunes and Spotify . You can find an overview of all our podcasts at www.sz.de/podcast , and you can find out how to listen to our podcasts here .

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