Israeli envoy slams German ruling on Nazism comparison

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, on Tuesday condemned a local court’s ruling last week that said that displaying a swastika to equate Israel with Nazis did not violate German laws against glorifying the ideology.

“Another German court ruling that allows antisemitic incitement to go unchecked under the guise of freedom of speech,” Prosor wrote on X. “Unbelievable and shameful: The equation of the Star of David with the swastika has been declared permissible.”

Ein weiteres deutsches Gerichtsurteil, das antisemitische Hetze unter dem Deckmantel der Meinungsfreiheit durchgehen lässt.Unfassbar und beschämend: Die Gleichsetzung des Davidsterns mit dem Hakenkreuz wird für zulässig erklärt.In einer Zeit, in der antisemitische Straftaten… pic.twitter.com/rOXrfNMjtT

Prosor was referencing a ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Zweibrücken in southwestern Germany, which on July 31 overturned a woman’s conviction for displaying Nazi symbols. She had posted online a distortion of the Israeli flag in which the Star of David was replaced by a swastika.

“In a time when antisemitic crimes are reaching record highs, this is a chink in the armor. Germany must not get used to the fact that antisemitism is repeatedly downplayed in court. The IHRA working definition must also serve as a standard for the German judiciary in assessing antisemitic crimes,” Prosor said.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is an intergovernmental commemoration committee with 35 member states, including 25 E.U. member states, among them Germany, and the United Kingdom. IHRA adopted the definition in 2016.

Among the examples of demonization of Israel and singling it out for criticism as potentially antisemitic is “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

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