Students at Berlin’s UdK University display palms stained with red to symbolize blood during a Nov. 13 pro-Hamas protest. Photo: Screenshot

Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, overwhelmingly passed a motion on Wednesday to address antisemitism and hostility toward Israel in schools and universities, seeking to combat a surge in pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and antisemitic incidents across the country.

After the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Germany has seen a record increase in antisemitic incidents and disruptive pro-Hamas protests, including the occupation of university buildings. The Oct. 7 atrocities, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were abducted to Gaza, started the Israel-Hamas war.

The parliamentary motion stipulates that the federal government — in collaboration with the ministers of education and the German Rectors’ Conference, an association of state and state-recognized universities — must ensure that antisemitic behavior in educational institutions results in sanctions.

“This includes the consistent enforcement of house rules, temporary exclusion from classes or studies, and even … expulsion,” the motion reads.

According to the proposal, the federal government should also increase funding for research on antisemitism and contemporary Jewish studies, while also supporting cooperation with Israeli science and opposing any boycott of the Jewish state.

The motion aims at halting the activities of groups promoting antisemitism, including the boycott, divestment, and, sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state. Last year, Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), classified BDS as a “suspected extremist case.”

Germany previously adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum. It is now used by hundreds of governing institutions — including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations — and presumably will be the basis for enforcing last week’s resolution.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

Last week, when presenting the resolution against campus antisemitism, parliamentary officials emphasized that Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff are “exposed to strong hostility and personal threats, increasingly violence.”

“The brutal massacre perpetrated by the terrorist organization Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, and the war in the Gaza Strip … have brought the Middle East conflict back into focus, especially in schools and universities,” officials said.

Jewish students at German universities widely expressed a growing sense of insecurity and uneasiness following Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, amid a slew of incidents purportedly meant to protest the war in Gaza.

In December 2023, for example, police were forced to clear a lecture hall at the Free University of Berlin occupied by pro-Hamas activists. That incident came days after dozens of students at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) staged a protest that involved them sitting around a table with their palms facing outwards painted in red ink to symbolize blood. While the gesture was apparently intended to condemn the German government’s support for Israel’s defensive military operation in Gaza, several observers noted a striking similarity with the notorious lynching of two Israeli military reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami, in the West Bank city of Ramallah in October 2000. One of their killers appeared at the window of the police station delightedly displaying his blood-stained palms to the appreciative crowd gathered outside following the murder of the two Israelis.

Germany’s education minister said in December 2023 that students who engage in antisemitic agitation could face expulsion from their universities, addressing concerns voiced by the Jewish student union.

A year later, the University of Leipzig canceled a lecture by Israeli historian Benny Morris following student protests described by the school as “understandable, but frightening in nature.” Morris, one of Israel’s leading public intellectuals, was scheduled to deliver a lecture about extremism and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which the Jewish state secured its independence, at the university on Thursday as part of a lecture series on antisemitism. However, the university nixed the event after various groups, including Students for Palestine Leipzig, called for the lecture to be canceled, arguing Morris — who has expressed political opinions associated with both the left and the right — held “deeply racist” views against Palestinians.

To help combat an atmosphere of hostility toward Israelis and Jews, last week’s resolution calls for increased support and training for educators. It also requires students to engage more with Jewish life, including visiting a memorial site at least once during their school years.

Additionally, it demands more security for Jews at universities, regardless of whether they are students, staff, or faculty.

The Left Party (Die Linke) and the newly formed left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) were the only parties not to support the measure, with the former abstaining and the latter voting against it. Left Party member Nicole Gohlke criticized the initiative, stating that its proponents were calling for the use of the police and intelligence services instead of building bridges and creating spaces for dialogue.

In November, the parliament had already reaffirmed its stance against antisemitism with a broader resolution, one of its goals being to stop supporting organizations and projects that spread antisemitism or question Israel’s right to exist.

Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total for all of the prior year and reached the highest annual count on record, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).

The figures compiled by RIAS 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.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.

The post Germany’s Parliament Moves to Combat Antisemitism at Universities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they meet in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, two Russian sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.

Trump has said he will end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible and said he is ready to meet with Putin. Putin congratulated Trump on his election and stated he is ready to meet Trump to discuss Ukraine and energy.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied any direct contacts with the US about preparations for a phone call between Trump and Putin, which would precede an eventual meeting later this year.

However, senior Russian officials have visited both Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent weeks, according to the Russian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

One source said there was still some opposition to the idea in Russia as some diplomats and intelligence officials were pointing to the close military and security links that both the Kingdom and the UAE have with the United States.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE did not respond to requests for comment. The Kremlin declined comment. But both Trump and Putin have developed friendly relations with rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Trump said on Sunday that his administration had “meetings and talks scheduled with various parties, including Ukraine and Russia.” When asked about those remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that contacts were “apparently planned.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the first foreign head of state Trump called after taking office. He described the Crown Prince as “a fantastic guy” during his speech via video link to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Putin, who visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2023, said last September that he was grateful to Mohammed bin Salman for helping to organize the biggest U.-Russian prisoner swap since the Cold War.

Putin and Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS, have fostered a close personal relationship since 2015 when the prince visited Russia for the first time.

PUTIN AND MBS

The relationship has helped the leaders of the world’s two biggest oil exporters conclude and maintain the OPEC+ energy deal. Trump called on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices, a potential bargaining chip for Russia in the talks.

Both Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have maintained neutrality throughout the Ukraine war, refraining from joining the West in criticizing and sanctioning Russia.

Both leaders have also maintained regular contacts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Russia several times during the war, saying during his last visit in October 2024 that he was ready to support efforts to find peace in Ukraine. The UAE also successfully mediated prisoner exchanges.

Neither country is a member of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin, preventing his visits to a number of countries, including Brazil and South Africa.

At the current stage, the Russian sources dismissed Turkey, a NATO member that hosted failed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in March 2022, as a possible venue.

Russian analyst Fyodor Lukyanov, the influential scientific director for the Valdai Discussion Club, whose members regularly meet Putin, said that Trump and Putin do not have much choice.

“Almost the entire West is involved on the side of Ukraine. Therefore, all the traditional venues where such things used to take place, like Helsinki, Geneva, and Vienna, are not suitable,” he was quoted by official TASS news agency as saying.

Lukyanov noted that while Saudi Arabia and the UAE play a very important role, both are very close US allies, which raises some questions from the Russian side.

“However, as a venue for negotiations, it is probably quite conceivable,” he added. Lukyanov declined to comment to Reuters on this story.

The post Saudi Arabia, UAE Seen as Possible Venues for Trump-Putin Summit, Two Russian Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Brigadier General Esmail Qaani — the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, which is responsible for Iranian operations abroad — speaks during a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2022. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Sweden’s government on Monday accused a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Stockholm of being a platform for Iranian spying against Sweden and the Iranian diaspora.

Sweden’s Minister for Social Affairs said on X that the Swedish Security Service assessed that the Imam Ali Islamic Center in Stockholm was used by Iran as a platform to spy and conduct activities threatening security.

“This is extremely serious,” Jakob Forssmed said, and added that Sweden had stopped all state monetary aid to the center. He added, without elaborating, that “an additional process” was under way.

“State funds should not be used for activities that conflict with fundamental democratic values,” he said.

The mosque could not be immediately reached for comment.

In a statement on its website, the Imam Ali Islamic Center said it was an independent organization without any links to political parties or states.

“IAC maintains strict oversight to ensure that our premises are not used as a platform for any criminal activity,” it said, denying claims that it had received money from foreign states.

Iran‘s official news agency IRNA reported on Monday that Iran had called Sweden’s ambassador in Tehran on Sunday to protest at the detention of the head of the Islamic Center in Stockholm.

“Diplomatic regulations were not respected in his case, he was not allowed to see his family members or Iranian diplomats, which begs questions and to which we express our objection,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, according to IRNA.

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry could not immediately comment on the case or confirm that a person had been detained.

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