VOICE OF AMERICA
September 6, 2014

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she would do everything she could to fight anti-Semitism in Germany, amid reports of attacks and a spike in anti-Israel sentiment since the Gaza conflict. In her weekly podcast, Merkel said she was alarmed that Jewish institutions in Germany still needed police protection and called for a big turnout at a rally against anti-Semitism that she was planning to address in Berlin next weekend.

Authorities and media in Germany, ultra-sensitive about anti-Semitism because of the Holocaust, have criticized chants against Israel and Jews during rallies against Israel’s conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In July, petrol bombs were thrown at a synagogue in the western town of Wuppertal and a man wearing a skullcap was beaten up on a street corner in Berlin.

“I will personally do everything I can – as will my entire government – to ensure that anti-Semitism doesn’t have a chance in our country,” said Merkel, without referring to specific incidents or mentioning any new policies…….German anti-racist laws forbid incitement to racial hatred such as anti-Semitic slogans, and outlaw propagation of the racist beliefs of the Nazis, whose emblems are also illegal.

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