Germany to conduct study on anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism.

Germany to conduct study on anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism.(Jpost).

Study: Over half of Germans polled agreed that "Israel behaves toward the Palestinians the way the Nazis behaved toward the Jews."

The German Ministry of the Interior will undertake a study on anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, a senior adviser to President Joachim Gauck told the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

The letter, by Gauck’s senior diplomatic and foreign policy adviser, Ambassador Heinz-Peter Behr, came in response to a request sent last month by Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who has been demanding such studies in correspondence with several European leaders.

In his request to Gauck, Cooper cited a study by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation that found that nearly half of Germans, and 40 percent of Europeans overall believe that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.”

Another study, conducted by the University of Bielefeld, found that over half of Germans polled agreed that “Israel behaves toward the Palestinians the way the Nazis behaved toward the Jews,” he added.

Cooper asserted that such beliefs contribute to a growing sense of unease among European Jews and help to explain the spread of calls for boycotts against the Jewish state.

The first step to be taken in combating anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel would be for national governments to “trace how such an utterly false and insidious image of Israel was created.”

“At the minimum, those who conceive and promote an unjustified and extreme criminal view of others should be exposed and held accountable in the court of public opinion,” he said. “We all know too well from the 1930s in Germany what can happen when the delegitimization and demonization of an empire goes unchallenged.”

In response, Behr said that the new study’s focus will “not only be on anti-Semitism, but also on German criticism of the State of Israel and its policies. Documents like these will contribute to the necessary debate on problems of anti-Semitism and the demonization of Israel.”Read the full story here.