Germany has seen an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the past year, annual crime stats released today reveal.
Despite seeing an overall drop in hate crimes and other criminal activity in 2017, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer noted the increase in attacks on Jews, in particular by non-German perpetrators..
Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel called an attack on an Jewish man in Berlin by a Syrian migrant a ‘new form of anti-Semitism’, and Seehofer said his office is taking the issue seriously.
New figures: Interior Minister Horst Seehofer noted an increase in anti-Semitic attacks carried out by migrants living in Germany in 2017
‘For the fight against anti-Semitism, we need the widest possible commitment,’ he said, noting the recent appointment of a commissioner for Jewish life and against anti-Semitism.
According to the new report, anti-Semitic crimes in Germany rose 2.5 percent in 2017 to 1,504. Overall hate crimes fell from 10,751 in 2016 to 7,913 to 2017.
In the Berlin attack, the 21-year-old victim, an Arab Israeli who said he wore the kippa in a show of solidarity with his Jewish friends, the suspect has been identified as a 19-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker.
There was a notable increase in what Seehofer called ‘imported anti-Semitic crimes,’ meaning attacks of Jews by migrants living in Germany, as he referred to the Berlin attack.
However, Seehofer told reporters. ‘imported anti-Semitism’ accounted for few of the crimes, with some 94 percent attributed to Germany’s far-right.
Rise: Some 94 per cent of all anti-Semitic attacks in Germany are carried out by the far-right, with attacks on Jews in general rising by 2.5 per cent last year. Pictured: Police officers patrol during an event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel in Berlin last week
The number of right-wing attacks on asylum-seeker homes, another cause for concern in recent years, dropped nearly 68 percent to 300 in 2017 from 929 in 2016.
Overall offenses dropped nearly 10 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year to nearly 5.8 million cases from 6.4 million cases, the lowest figure since 1992. Meanwhile, the proportion of crimes that were solved rose.
‘Despite all the challenges, the clear fact is that Germany is more secure – though that’s no reason to give the all-clear, there’s still a lot to do,’ Seehofer said.
Significant drops were seen in break-ins, shoplifting and pickpocketing, while increases were seen in drug offences, economic crimes and weapons violations.
Despite the decline, recent surveys have shown that Germans perceive their country as less safe.
Overall, crimes attributed to the far-right fell by 12.9 percent in 2017 to 20,520. Crimes blamed on the far-left, many connected to the violent protests against last year’s G-20 summit in Hamburg, rose 3.9 percent to 9,752.
There were 1,102 crimes motivated by religious ideology in 2017, a new category. In 2016, there were 722 crimes attributed to Islamic extremism.
The Interior Ministry noted a large spike in the number of people accused of membership in a terrorist organization – to 316 in 2017 from 66 in 2016 – but said most were people pointed out by fellow asylum-seekers for crimes in their homelands.