Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

MIDDLE EAST

Climate group’s Israel-Hamas posts cause uproar in Germany

Fridays for Future's German branch was under growing pressure on Friday to cut ties with the international climate movement over controversial social media posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Published: 27 October 2023 17:48 CEST
Palestine demo Berlin
A demonstrator in Berlin waves a Palestinian flag in solidarity with civilians in Gaza. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Paul Zinken

In an interview with Bild daily, Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, urged the German group to consider a “real disassociation, a change of name and the breaking off of all contacts” with the parent organisation.

Schuster accused the movement started by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg of a “crude distortion of history, demonisation of Israel and now also conspiracy ideology”.

Fridays for Future on Wednesday shared a post on Instagram accusing western media of “brainwashing” people into backing Israel in the Middle East conflict.

READ ALSO: Anti-Semitism fears rise in Germany after attempted arson at Berlin synagogue

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7th, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says the strikes have now killed 7,326 people, mainly civilians and many of them children.

The Fridays for Future post alleged that western media outlets are “funded by imperialist governments who stand with Israel”.

It also accused the media of concealing the fact that the latest attacks by Hamas are “rooted in the past 75 years of oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”, which it described as a “genocide”.

READ ALSO: German Chancellor Scholz terrified by Gaza hospital blast on Middle East trip

The post did not mention Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, in which people were shot, burned and mutilated to death.

The German branch on Thursday posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, stating that “the international account — as previously emphasised — does not speak for us”.

The group has previously declared its solidarity with Israel as well as voicing support for civilians in Gaza amid Israel’s massive bombing campaign.

It has also stated that it rejects all forms of anti-Semitism.

But the TAZ daily said the German group needed to “ask itself whether it can really show solidarity with Jews as an offshoot of a movement that is repeatedly conspicuous for its anti-Semitism”.

Fridays for Future has been criticised over several controversial social media posts in the wake of the latest escalation in the Middle East.
On October 20th, Thunberg shared a photo showing herself and three other activists holding signs in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The picture featured a blue octopus stuffed animal, which critics said was a reference to an anti-Semitic symbol found in early 20th-century political cartoons.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Iran’s secret service accused of plots to kill Jews in France and Germany

A Paris court in May detained and charged a couple on accusations that they were involved in Iranian plots to kill Jews in Germany and France, police sources told AFP.

Published: 8 September 2024 12:55 CEST
Iran's secret service accused of plots to kill Jews in France and Germany

Authorities charged Abdelkrim S., 34, and his partner Sabrina B., 33, on May 4 with conspiring with a criminal terrorist organisation and placed them in pre-trial detention.

The case, known as “Marco Polo” and revealed Thursday by French news website Mediapart, signals a revival in Iranian state-sponsored terrorism in Europe, according to a report by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) consulted by AFP.

“Since 2015, the Iranian (secret) services have resumed a targeted killing policy,” the French security agency wrote, adding that “the threat has worsened again in the context of the Israel-Hamas war”.

The alleged objective for Iranian intelligence was to target civilians and sow fear in Europe among the country’s political opposition as well as among Jews and Israelis.

Iran is accused of recruiting criminals, including drug lords, to conduct such operations.

Abdelkrim S. was previously sentenced to 10 years behind bars over a killing in Marseille and released on probation in July 2023.

He is accused of being the main France-based operative for an Iran-sponsored terrorist cell that planned acts of violence in France and Germany.

A former fellow inmate is believed to have connected the suspect with the cell’s coordinator, a major drug trafficker from the Lyon area who likely visited Iran in May, according to the DGSI.

The group intended to attack a Paris-based former employee at an Israeli security firm and three of his colleagues residing in the Paris suburbs.

Three Israeli-German citizens in Munich and Berlin were also among the targets.

Investigators believe that Abdelkrim S. despite his probation made multiple trips to Germany for scouting purposes, including travels to Berlin with his wife.

He denied the accusations and said he simply had purchases to make.

French authorities are also crediting the cell with plots to set fire to four Israeli-owned companies in the south of France between late December 2023 and early January 2024, said a police source.

Abdelkrim S. while in detention rejected the claims, the source added, saying he had acted as a go-between on Telegram for the mastermind and other individuals involved in a planned insurance scam.

SHOW COMMENTS