Germany: Protesters shout "death to Jews", get charged for anti-Zionist chants

The headline of this news item is "German judge rules: Anti-Zionism is code for anti-Semitism", which is true enough.  But I think the real story is German inability to deal with outright antisemitism.

49 protesters were arrested in a protest where people chanted "Death to the Jews".

45 of those cases were dismissed.

In this specific case, a known Jew-hater who was caught on camera in previous protests shouting "death to the Jews" and "Jews to the gas chamber" was charged with shouting "Zionists".  So the judge did the best he could.   Of course 'Zionist' was just another word for 'Jew' in this protest.  People there wanted to kill Jews and did not hide that fact.

It's really sad if that's the best Germany can do.


Via Times of Israel:

The wheels of justice move slowly, but they are inching forward in Germany. In a unprecedented case heard half a year after these violent anti-Israel demonstrations, last week in Essen, German Judge Gauri Sastry convicted 24-year-old Taylan Can for incitement against an ethnic minority for events at a July 18, 2014, anti-Israel demonstration in the town.

Eyewitness accounts report hostile anti-Israel chants and stones thrown from the anti-Israel camp to the smaller group of Israel supporters. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a breakaway group headed toward a local synagogue, intending to attack it.

A YouTube video of the demonstration shows fields of Palestinian flags and Turkish flags, and a motley group of young men running and chanting “Adolf Hitler” and “Death to the Jews.” In the video, popular Essen Muslim rapper Sinan-G speaks to the camera explaining this is a counter-demonstration against the Jews. “The Jews insulted us, man, this is crazy stuff,” he said.

Despite the large police presence, the crowd was clearly out of control. According to Die Welt, police arrested 49 protesters. Forty-five cases were dismissed in December.

Born in Germany to a Turkish family, Can is well-known for his anti-Israel activism. According to Die Welt, Can was caught on tape at a Copenhagen protest shouting into a borrowed police megaphone, “Death to the Jews,” “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas chamber.”

At his Essen hearing this winter Can was prosecuted for his use of the term “Zionist” as incitement against a minority.

During the hearing, Can claimed he was not an anti-Semite and had nothing against the Jewish people but only against the Zionist state. In response, Judge Sastry is quoted by Die Welt saying, “‘Zionist’ is the language of anti-Semites, the code for ‘Jew.'”