No more money for anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli organizations – that is actually the position of the Berlin Senate. When it comes to concrete things, however, there is already a dispute about what should be considered anti-Semitic. “The discussion process in the Senate on the so-called anti-Semitism clause is not yet complete,” a spokeswoman for the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) told WELT in response to a query.
The Senate Chancellery essentially points out that a working group is working on the design of the clause. “The aim is to ensure that no public funding or subsidies are given to extremist or anti-democratic organizations, clubs, initiatives, etc. in the future” – although of course that is exactly what has happened in the past.
And the “discussion process” behind the scenes is currently escalating into a dispute between the two coalition parties, the CDU and the SPD. The reason is the question of whether the advisory center “Frauenkreise Berlin” should continue to be funded. For the current year 2024, the Senate Social Administration under Senator Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD) has earmarked more than 200,000 euros for the association. CDU MPs want to prevent this from being paid out. “We are striving for a change in the state budget regulations,” CDU MP Timur Husein told WELT.
The reason for the debate to flare up is a now-deleted comment by the “Women’s Circles” association on its website about the Middle East war, which went online last December. “For over two months, we have been witnessing daily the ongoing state-organized warlike violence of the Israeli military against the Palestinian population in Gaza,” the text begins.
A few paragraphs later, the authors also write about the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, “in which around 1,200 people were brutally murdered, thousands seriously injured and over 240 hostages abducted.” This was “not only a deeply inhumane crime, but also marks an end to the idea of Israel as a safe haven for Jews.”
Nevertheless, in the very next sentence, the “women’s circles” criticize Israel for responding militarily: “But no room was left for this suffering and pain, as the Hamas attack was immediately and disproportionately retaliated with the deaths of over 18,000 civilians to date and continues to be retaliated against.” That sounds as if Israel would have been better off mourning for a while without a military response. The number of deaths that the “women’s circles” cite comes from Hamas – which is not disclosed in the text.
“Germany has a long history of its own mass-destroying anti-Semitism to come to terms with and has not yet been denazified,” the “women’s circles” continue to claim. “Instead, due to a lack of integrity and its own identity and German guilt struggles, it is showing solidarity with a right-wing, fascist Israeli government.” The attribution of “fascist” or right-wing radical to Israel’s democratically elected government is otherwise part of the repertoire of Hamas supporters.
The “Women’s Circles” propose the following strategy for action: “If we position ourselves as feminists, we must also clearly demonstrate an anti-racist and anti-capitalist stance against colonialism, nationalism (sic) and white supremacy.” “White supremacy” refers to a racist ideology in the USA that propagates the superiority of the “white race.” “Racism and colonialism” are among the typical accusations against Israel in left-wing and Islamist protests against Israel on the streets and university campuses.
With regard to its own situation as a state-funded project, the text criticizes that a “differentiated discourse” is not possible in Germany: “Especially in spaces and projects that receive state funding, representatives of critical attitudes in solidarity with Palestinians are portrayed as anti-Semitic and must expect existential consequences, withdrawal of funding and repression – as happened, for example, in the case of the Oyoun cultural center in Berlin.” Groups supporting the anti-Israel BDS campaign have appeared several times in the center in Berlin-Neukölln. The cultural center received funding from the Berlin Senate, which is due to expire at the end of 2023.
At almost 10,000 characters, it is a long text with lots of details. It is illustrated with photos that are supposed to show fires, explosions, people fleeing and children in the Gaza Strip. There are no pictures of the Hamas massacre or of the abduction of Israeli hostages.
The article is no longer available and can no longer be found in web archives. WELT has the text.
When asked, the Senate administration responsible criticized the text but did not want to comment on the consequences. “For our department, we make it clear: we will not accept anti-Semitic statements,” wrote Senator Kiziltepe’s spokesman, Stefan Strauß, in an email to WELT. “We are therefore taking the incident very seriously and have clearly communicated this to the ‘Women’s Circles’ organization.”
The spokesperson describes the consequences as follows: “The project has contacted an advisory center with expertise on anti-Semitism. They are conducting a critical reflection process on the content of the article. We are closely monitoring this process.”
The spokesperson did not answer the question of whether the “women’s circles” should continue to be financed from tax revenue, even after repeated requests. Neither the spokesperson nor the “women’s circles” organization wanted to reveal which “advice center with expertise on anti-Semitism” it was. It was a “recognized organization in the field of anti-Semitism prevention.” The Senate Social Administration spends 2.9 million euros annually on this “important work.”
For CDU MP Husein, the commission’s deliberations on the planned anti-Semitism clause are taking too long. “In my opinion, too much time is passing.” The SPD apparently has “different ideas” about what is meant by anti-Semitism and who should continue to receive money in the future.
The “Women’s Circles” organization announced that it would answer questions, but has not commented on the matter to WELT since Monday.
