Those seeking citizenship in the East German state of Brandenburg must now acknowledge the right of Israel to exist.

René Wilke, minister of the interior and for municipal affairs of Brandenburg, told the state parliament in Potsdam on Thursday about the policy, which had gone into effect on June 1 for people seeking naturalization and passports. Wilke clarified that while the policy intended to demonstrate German solidarity with Israel, it would not provide a free pass for the Jewish state, warning that not all Israeli actions will receive support.

“This is a commitment to the right of the State of Israel to exist,” the minister said. “It is not a commitment that everything any head of government in Israel has ever done and will ever do will also receive solidarity and approval.”

Andreas Büttner, who serves as antisemitism commissioner for Brandenburg, advocated for the policy.

“Israel is the promise of protection and self-determination,” Büttner said, according to German media. “Anyone who attacks Israel is attacking this promise.”

However, not all leaders in Brandenburg support the prerequisite for citizenship.

Friederike Benda, state leader of the leftist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party (BSW), pushed back, labeling the move “a slap in the face for democracy.”

“While Brandenburg is calling for a commit to peaceful coexistence between peoples and against wars of aggression, the German government continues to supply weapons to an Israeli government that is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip and has attacked Iran in violation of international law. That is hypocrisy!” Benda wrote on Facebook.

The new citizenship policy required affirmation of other German values, including support for democracy and the country’s Constitution as well as recognition of the Nazis’ atrocities and the importance of protecting Jewish life. Applicants must also reject bigamy and wars of aggression. The laws have tightened in economic and national security terms too, now requiring potential citizens to show they will not rely on welfare, can speak the German language, and have not committed crimes in previous countries.

The German state of Saxony-Anhalt introduced a similar measure in 2023 linking naturalization to a recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

Berlin could be next, according to the German capital’s governing mayor, Kai Wegner.

“Personally, I can well imagine including the recognition of Israel’s right to exist as a prerequisite for naturalization,” Wegener told the German publication Tagesspiegel this past weekend.

Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct.7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany almost doubled last year, the semi-official German body that tracks antisemitism reported last month.

The Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism (RIAS) said it had registered 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism, and threats against Jews in Germany, almost twice the 4,886 recorded in 2023, and far ahead of 2020’s 1,957. Approximately 25 percent of total outrages last year featured what the report described as “anti-Israel antisemitism.”

“Objectively, the risk of being persecuted as a Jew in Germany has increased since Oct. 7, 2023,” Benjamin Steinitz, head of RIAS told a press briefing when the figures were released. “But debates about what counts as an expression of antisemitism seem to take up more space than empathy for the victims.”

In Berlin specifically, the number of antisemitic incidents in just the first six months of 2024 alone surpassed the total for all of the prior year and reached the highest annual count on record, according to separate figures from RIAS.

The figures in Berlin were the highest count for a single year since the federally-funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.

However, experts believe that the true number of incidents is much higher but not recorded because of reluctance on the part of the victims.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Fox News in June that immigration had increased antisemitism.

“We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down,” Merz said. “We are prosecuting those who are against the law. And frankly, we have a sort of imported antisemitism with the big numbers of migrants we have within the last 10 years, and we have to tackle this and we have to resolve this problem.”

In February, Berlin police arrested a Syrian refugee for allegedly stabbing a tourist at a Holocaust memorial. He reportedly told the officers he wanted “to kill Jews.”

Merz said he wanted “to make it very clear” that Germany’s government and “the vast majority of the German parliament” opposed antisemitism.

“We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down,” Merz said.

In May, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned that the country’s longstanding support for Israel had its limits.

“Our committed fight against antisemitism and our full support for the right to exist and the security of the state of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said. “We are now at a point where we have to think very carefully about what further steps to take.”

In April, Germany deported four pro-Hamas demonstrators — three European Union citizens and one US citizen — on the basis that they posed a “threat to public order.”

On Feb. 23, Merz — then a candidate for chancellor — expressed his support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the country without fear of arrest in response to an International Criminal Court warrant.

“I think it is a completely absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister cannot visit the Federal Republic of Germany,” Merz said, revealing that he had told Netanyahu they “would find ways and means for him to visit Germany and leave again without being arrested.” Merz said he would support such a visit “in defiance of the scandalous International Criminal Court decision to label the prime minister a war criminal.”

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