Stolpersteine, or stumbling blocks, defaced in Weimar, Germany with the phrase “Juden sind tater” or “Jews are perpetrators.” Photo: Screenshot

Antisemitic incidents at Germany’s Holocaust memorial sites remain alarmingly high and continue to climb, according to a new report, amid a rising tide of hostility and targeted violence against Jews and Israelis across the country.

On Wednesday, Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS) released its latest report detailing a surge in antisemitic attacks at Holocaust memorials, showing that 211 such incidents were registered in 2024 — nearly double the previous year’s total.

Even though the 2025 figures are not yet finalized, the organization warned that this alarming trend shows no sign of slowing, with incidents continuing unabated across the country.

Among reported cases, visitors’ guest books have been repeatedly defaced with comparisons of Israel’s actions to Nazi crimes, guided tours disrupted, staff threatened, and memorials targeted with graffiti and antisemitic stickers, revealing a growing climate of intimidation and hostility at these sites.

According to RIAS’s latest report, most antisemitic incidents are primarily linked to the far-right spectrum, but there is also a rising trend “from a left-wing anti-imperialist and anti-Israel background.”

Staff at memorial sites are also facing a growing number of young visitors promoting revisionist historical claims — efforts aimed at distorting or denying well-established historical facts, including the realities of the Holocaust.

Mihail Groys, a member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, warned that the local Jewish community is increasingly at risk, stressing the urgent need to protect memorial sites in order to preserve historical awareness and ensure such atrocities are never forgotten.

“Attacks on these sites are directed against the memory of the victims of Nazi crimes and against our fundamental democratic values,” Groys told Tagesspiegel. “Especially now, as the last survivors of the Shoah [Holocaust] are passing away, memorial sites must be resolutely protected and strengthened as authentic places of remembrance.”

Deborah Hartmann, director of the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin — a memorial and educational center at the site where Nazi officials planned the Holocaust — said the institution has intensified its focus on critically reflecting on antisemitism across its exhibitions, publications, and guided tours since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel — the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. 

However, she warned that without urgent and sustained funding, these efforts could be at risk, urging authorities not only to increase financial support but also to recognize the growing importance of such educational work in combating antisemitism.

Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, Germany has seen a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

According to newly released figures, the number of antisemitic offenses in the country reached a record high in 2025, totaling 2,267 incidents, including violence, incitement, property damage, and propaganda offenses.

By comparison, officially recorded antisemitic crimes were significantly lower at 1,825 in 2024, 900 in 2023, and fewer than 500 in 2022, prior to the Oct. 7 atrocities.

Officials warn that the real number of antisemitic crimes is likely much higher, as many incidents go unreported.

In one of the latest incidents, a group of unknown individuals vandalized a Holocaust memorial monument in Hanover, in northern Germany, spraying antisemitic slogans and swastikas — adding to a growing wave of attacks on memorial sites across the Hanover region.

The city’s mayor, Belit Onay, condemned this latest incident, calling it an unacceptable attack on the memory of the victims and a direct affront to the values of tolerance and democracy.

“These slogans on the memorial in the heart of Hanover are yet another sign of how antisemitism all too often breaks through in our society, seeking its place in its center,” the German politician said.

“Antisemitism is and remains a major problem, and combating it is our duty. We continue to stand by our Jewish fellow citizens,” he continued.

(JTA) — After resigning this week over what he said was Israel’s manipulation of President Donald Trump into war with Iran, former national counterterrorism director Joe Kent is now insinuating Israel may have also killed Charlie Kirk as part of its pressure campaign.

Kent made the comments on a Wednesday evening appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, as the FBI launched an investigation into whether Kent shared classified material. He is also scheduled to appear Thursday evening at a “Catholics for Catholics” gala featuring podcaster Candace Owens, who has promulgated antisemitic conspiracy theories and praised Kent.

“When one of President Trump’s closest advisers, who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he’s suddenly publicly assassinated and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that, it’s a data point,” Kent told Carlson about the 2025 murder of the right-wing pundit. “It’s a data point that we need to look into.”

He did not provide specifics to what he described as “unanswered questions,” beyond referencing texts between Kirk and pro-Israel donors that have already been made public. Yet Kent’s comments, which also insinuated a potential link between Israel and the 2024 attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, provided further grist for figures like Carlson and Owens.

And they came on the heels of his accusations, in his resignation letter, that Israel had also “manufactured” the war in Iraq and the Syrian civil war — claims he defended further in his Carlson interview. Kent’s remarks have fueled further concern among American Jews across the aisle who fear that such comments will drive antisemitism.

“We had already dug up a decent amount of leads,” Kent told Carlson, saying it was his center’s job to investigate “foreign ties” in cases like Kirk’s murder, before higher authorities ordered him to stop. “There was more work for us to do on the potential of a foreign nexus.”

Kent’s alignment with Carlson, who was close with Kirk and has used his podcast to promote various conspiracy theories about Israel and Jewish movements including Chabad, as well as with Owens, point to a growing divide within the Trump administration and its supporters over support for Israel and tolerance for antisemitism. That divide has been exacerbated by war with Iran.

Semafor reported that the FBI’s investigation of Kent, a former congressman with past ties to avowed antisemitic streamer Nick Fuentes, relates to alleged improper sharing of classified information, and that it predated his resignation.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking in Michigan on Wednesday, offered guarded praise of Kent while saying he agreed with his resignation.

“I know Joe Kent a little bit. I like Joe Kent,” Vance said at a manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills. But, he added, “When the president of the United States makes a decision, it’s your job to help make that decision as effective and successful as possible… If you’re on the team and you can’t help implement the decisions of his administration, he has the right to make those decisions, then it’s a good thing for you to resign.”

Vance, who has been criticized in the past for declining to forcefully condemn antisemitism on the right, did not address Kent’s contentions that Israel manipulated Trump into war. The vice president took time from his address to praise Temple Israel, the nearby West Bloomfield synagogue whose security guards fended off a terrorist attack last week.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Joe Kent, now under investigation, insinuates to Tucker Carlson that Israel might have killed Charlie Kirk to stoke Iran war appeared first on The Forward.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends the Ministry of Awqaf conference titled “Unity of Islamic Discourse” at the Conference Palace in Damascus, Syria, Feb. 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

The same week that an influential survey of global freedom named Syria as the most improved country in the world, Syrian authorities announced a crackdown on alcohol sales in Damascus amid persecution for those failing to fast for a full day during Ramadan.

On Thursday, the nonprofit advocacy group Freedom House released its annual report reviewing the rise and fall of freedom around the world, rating countries based on their political rights and civil liberties. The organization offered a grim overall assessment, noting that freedom had fallen for the 20th consecutive year, with 54 nations declining in 2025. Today only 21 percent of human beings live in countries classified as free, a drop of 46 percent from 20 years ago, according to the report.

“Even as 2026 has brought new opportunities for those living under authoritarian rule from Venezuela to Iran, the last 20 years have been a dark period for global freedom,” Freedom House CEO Jamie Fly said in a statement. “Those who still enjoy the blessings of freedom must do more to counter authoritarianism and provide more effective support for the democratic aspirations of people standing up to repression around the world, or this persistent decline will continue.”

However, one Middle Eastern country in particular stood as a bright spot countering the trend.

“Syria received the world’s largest score improvement for the year, bringing cautious optimism to a region dominated by entrenched authoritarian rule,” the report stated.

Last year, “foreign and independent local media outlets were able to report critically from inside Syria, civil society organizations were able to register and operate more freely, and oppressive Assad-era legal restrictions started to be rolled back,” the report added, referring to long-time Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December 2024.

Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria’s official president after leading the rebel campaign that ousted Assad — whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war — in an offensive spearheaded by al-Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate.

Since taking power, al-Sharaa has sought to depict himself as a moderate leader who wants to unify his country and attract foreign investment to rebuild it after years of civil war. Many foreign leaders and experts have been skeptical of him, however, questioning whether he is still a jihadist trying to disguise his extremism.

Incidents of sectarian violence — including the mass killing of pro-Assad Alawites — have deepened fears among minority groups about the rise of Islamist factions and drawn condemnation from global powers currently engaged in discussions on sanctions relief and humanitarian aid.

The US has moved to lift an array of sanctions previously imposed on Syria under Assad. Until recently, al-Sharaa was sanctioned by the US as a foreign terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.

However, Freedom House said it observed significant improvement for the freedom of Syrians, despite major challenges.

Freedom House described how in Syria today, “citizens and a transitional government face profound challenges in erecting a democratic system after more than half a century of dictatorship. The civil war that began in 2011 has devastated public institutions and infrastructure, while sectarian polarization and ongoing violence further complicate efforts to create credible transitional justice mechanisms and introduce the rule of law.”

An example of that sectarianism manifested on Monday evening, when the Damascus governorate announced a number of measures to restrict alcohol sales. The rules will require nightclubs and bars with liquor licenses to convert into cafe licenses. The city will only allow alcohol purchases with sealed bottles from stores in majority Christian places. This conflicts with Syrian law, which does not ban alcohol, as well as human rights treaties signed by Syrian protecting the right to drink alcohol.

The regulations also limit the locations of alcohol vendors, banning them from operating 75 meters from houses of worship and schools with only three months to comply. One unnamed bar owner told The Arab Weekly that he had anticipated the change and would close in response. He noted that he had seen a decline in his customers since the rise of l-Sharaa’s government last year. Other restaurants have reportedly adapted to the change by taking alcohol off of menus or shifting to serving drinks in teacups.

Syria’s leaders have opposed religious freedom in other ways recently, with The Arab Weekly citing reports of arrests and firings for those who break Ramadan fasts early.

Freedom House researchers offered additional insights into the depths of authoritarianism around the world and its hot spots. The states with the heaviest drop in rankings last year were Guinea-Bissau (−8), Tanzania (−7), Burkina Faso, (−5), Madagascar (−5), and El Salvador (−5).

The countries which received the worst overall scores were South Sudan (0), Sudan (1), and Turkmenistan (1) on the organization’s 100-point scale.

Iran saw a fall by one point, reaching a score of 10 total points, with Freedom House explaining that authorities arrested more than 21,000 people “as part of a crackdown on alleged espionage and collaboration following the regime’s 12-day war with Israel in June” and that the regime had expelled “some 1.8 million Afghan migrants and refugees without regard for their basic rights.”

Russia and China maintained their scores of 12 and 9, respectively, with Freedom House stating that “Russian authorities took further steps to suppress antiwar speech and independent journalism, while Chinese officials cracked down on small but multiplying protests.”

The report noted numerous military coups in Africa, identifying nine since 2019 with Madagascar the most recent.

“Mali provides just one example of the lasting damage done by military coups. Conditions in several countries, including Burkina Faso and Niger, continued to deteriorate in 2025 after a wave of military coups beginning in 2019 toppled governments across the Sahel and West Africa,” the report stated. “In both countries, freedom continued to decline in the years following the coups, as the junta leaders acted unilaterally to consolidate power and used increasingly violent methods to suppress dissent.”

In Burkina Faso, the military indefinitely suspended elections, while in Niger the junta dissolved all political parties.

“We continue to see that the desire for freedom is universal,” said Yana Gorokhovskaia, who co-authored the report and works as Freedom House’s research director. “From Belarus to Zimbabwe, people around the world are taking great personal risks to stand up and defend their fundamental rights.”

Gorokhovskaia said that to reverse the global decline in freedom, “democratic governments and societies must demonstrate their solidarity with those seeking freedom, in part through funding and diplomatic support for frontline human rights defenders and nongovernmental organizations.”