Several
friends have asked me why I haven’t written anything after the killing of two
people near the Halle synagogue, by a native-German, right-wing extremist. He
tried to penetrate the full synagogue, fortunately without success. And yet, he
managed to kill two people in the street. In
his message, the killer explained that feminism was to blame for low birth
rates in the west, which he said had led to mass immigration. He added that he
was a holocaust denier and said “the Jew” was the root of these problems.
A
lot has and still is being written about the incident. Most of what one
reads about the killing, be it in the printed media, or on social media, is
crap. I am not sure why the death of two people should have so much more impact
– calls for action, for change, vigils, flowers, candles and public tears wherever
you look – than the underlying, unattractive and extremely worrying, right-wing
hatred that is being promoted in Germany and in many other countries. But that
is the way public sentiment works.
It
has all the required ingredients to shock: Jews, killing, synagogue, Yom Kippur
and Nazi propaganda. And yet,
is
it serious for a senior journalist to headline her commentary with “The deadly
danger of being a Jew in Germany” or for an intelligent Jewish writer to talk
about Germany,
as “a country where hatred for those who are perceived to be
different slides effortlessly from a tick on the election ballot to
genocide”?
Some
take advantage of this incident and go much further, to advance their usual agenda.
One, who has shown the greatest Chutzpah, was Mathias Döpfner, the CEO
of the Axel Springer media concern (Die Welt, Bild). In his article
about Halle, he lists various incidents, in which immigrants were involved in
recent years and moves on to demand more immigration control. Hallo, Mr.
Döpfner, the Halle killer is one of yours, no import. With his writing, Döpfner
blatantly promotes the right-wing AfD party. He does not tell people to vote AfD
but fosters the fears and thoughts that bring voters to this despicable party.
Promoting
hatred kills.
