(Algemeiner) Muslim activists in Germany who chanted antisemitic slogans at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin last Saturday were motivated not by a personal connection to the conflict, but by their exposure to bigoted religious and media messages, a leading Middle Eastern expert on Islamism said on Tuesday.
Ahmad Mansour — an Israeli-Arab psychologist who is based in the German capital — told Berlin’s BZ news outlet that the outbursts of antisemitic invective at pro-Palestinian rallies in the Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts came from participants with “no biographical proximity” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
“It’s the methods of upbringing, religious understandings, education and media that work every day to further fuel this hatred,” observed Mansour, who recently led an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the Arabic-language service of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster.
