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Hintergrund - Antisemitismus-Debatte

German church leaders intervene in row over anti-Semitism

by Frauke Brauns

Bielefeld, Germany, 11 June (ENI) -- The leaders of Germany's main churches have intervened in a bitter public controversy about anti-Semitism.

Protestant church leader Manfred Kock and Roman Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann called for an end to what each described as a "harmful" debate that has pitted a senior politician against the Central Council of Jews in Germany (ZJD).

Their intervention followed a demand by the ZJD's president, Paul Spiegel, for a public statement from church leaders. Spiegel said that the churches were not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.

The controversy has centred on Jurgen Mollemann, vice-chair of Germany's small Free Democratic Party (FDP), who last month accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the ZJD, and its vice-president, Michael Friedmann, of being partly to blame for anti-Semitism.

Mollemann claimed that anti-Semitism was on the increase because, he said, Sharon, the ZJD and Friedmann were unwilling to tolerate any criticism of Israeli military actions in the Middle East, least of all from Germans - a charge Friedmann rejected.

Spiegel responded by saying that blaming anti-Semitism on Jews - a common practice by Nazis during the Third Reich - was "the biggest insult uttered by a party in the federal republic [of Germany] since the Holocaust".

Mollemann eventually said he apologised "if I have injured the sensitivities of Jewish people" but later told journalists that he was excluding Friedmann from the apology.

Mollemann's opponents have accused him of flirting with the far right to boost the chances of the FDP in this year's parliamentary elections.

In an apparent apology for the initial silence of the churches, Kock in a radio interview said: "Maybe we did not speak out loudly or early enough, but there are no doubts about which side we are on."

He added that "we cannot afford a party that seeks voters on the far right".

Thomas Kruger, the spokesperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany, of which Kock is chair, told ENI that normally the EKD did not take sides in political discussions. "We hesitated for some time, but have now spoken up because the debate is a danger to democratic behaviour and to Germany." [369 words]

Ecumenical News International, 11 June 2002