Israel ambassador calls for mandatory visits to Holocaust memorials

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, has proposed making visits to concentration camp memorials compulsory for schoolchildren as part of the fight against anti-Semitism, according to the newspaper Die Zeit. He said it was important for young people to learn about the history of the Holocaust and particularly stressed the importance of education for children with a Muslim migrant background.

‘When I visited Arab countries and talked to my hosts about our history, initially I often encountered prejudice against Jews and Israelis,’ he recalled.

He also called for stricter legislation and for the international definition of anti-Semitism, developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), to be enshrined in law. Such a move, he said, would allow for more effective state action against hate speech.

The ambassador said anti-Semitism in Germany took many forms. He pointed to right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism from the Muslim world and left-wing anti-Semitism, which, in his view, posed a particular challenge as it often straddled the line between freedom of expression and hate speech.

Prosor argued that hatred of Jews can also occur in academic or cultural settings, where it is often masked by other forms of expression. As an example, he cited a recent incident at the Berlin International Film Festival, where Syrian-Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Al-Khatib accused Germany of complicity in what he described as Israel’s ‘genocide in Gaza’ in his acceptance speech.

(max)