Anti-Semitism in the Left Party: Don't we want to be better?

I've been wrestling with myself since election night. I would like to open a bottle of champagne and be happy that a progressive government alliance is possible in my city - while the extreme right is winning elections in other federal states. I want the socialization of large housing companies. I want a government that seriously addresses the social question and does things to solve it. And I want a government coalition that treats Berlin's diversity with respect instead of treating it as a problem.

At the same time, I also want to be safe in this city. That's why I'm not in a champagne mood if the Berlin Left wins the election. No matter how often the party emphasizes this, it does not have a consistent stance in dealing with anti-Semitism. Especially not in their own ranks. As a left-wing Jew, this forces me to make a decision that I don't want to have to make. For a party whose political visions for a fair city I find most convincing. Or against her because I don't trust her on a central issue.

Shortly after the election in Berlin, Sascha Chaimowicz described in Die Zeit what it meant to him as a Jew that over 40 percent of the people in his constituency voted for the left. He says that his son will start school next year and he is wondering whether he can send him to a public school in Kreuzberg. Reading it made me feel that more than I would have liked. My children are also starting school next year. We are also dealing with this question. And it's a painful realization that the school in the neighborhood that a friend has heard so many good things about is definitely great for her child - but perhaps not safe for mine.

Since the Left won the election, Berlin has not become more dangerous for Jews than the city was last week. But: Berlin has become less safe for Jews in recent years. The whole country is.

This is due to the massive shift to the right and the popularity of a right-wing extremist party like the AfD, which is currently on the verge of forming a state government for the first time in Saxony-Anhalt. But also in anti-Semitic and violent anti-Israel positions within a milieu of solidarity with Palestine, which also includes the left.

Anyone who now accuses the left of anti-Semitism is running a completely exaggerated campaign by right-wing and conservative forces against a red-green-red coalition in Berlin, it is now said. And yes, this campaign exists. It is excessive, often racist, and it exploits anti-Semitism for its own purposes. Where was the Union's outrage when Hubert Aiwanger simply remained in office in Bavaria despite anti-Semitic leaflets in his past? Resisting the current campaign against the left is important.

Anyone who shows solidarity with people in Gaza is not automatically anti-Semitic. Even those who name and criticize Israeli war crimes are not anti-Semitic. And the Left is not an anti-Semitic party. Not in the federal government and not in Berlin either.

That doesn't change the fact that there is a real problem.

“Can a rapper decide on the future of the election,” asked the taz after the rapper Dahabflex dreamed of “Death to the IDF” and an “Intifada like the PFLP” on a Neukölln Left campaign stage. For me it's not important what any musician sang. What matters to me is that the organizers didn't intervene. Even more: that they defended the performance including these lines. To remember what lies behind these words: suicide attacks on bus stops and markets, plane hijackings, October 7th. It wasn't the only incident of its kind.

That scares me. My claim to left-wing politics is that it stands with people in solidarity and empathy and wants a better life for everyone. I would like to be able to expect a social and political left to mean everyone when they say “everyone”. That she criticizes the destruction and death of tens of thousands of people in Gaza, that she protests for freedom of expression and against excessive repression in Germany - and against anti-Semitism and the glorification of violence against Jews and Israelis.

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As a left-wing Jew, can't I expect from a political left that its fight against misanthropy is also for me?

I wish I didn't have to discuss whether trivializing or even glorifying terror is acceptable. Is that asking too much?

This is what it says in the decisions of the Left itself. But not everyone seems to feel bound by it. And the party just lets them do it. The top staff distances themselves and announces clarification. And then happens: nothing. The left is sitting out the problem. And that makes yourself even more vulnerable.

I want a society in which I don't have to make decisions. In which the left and its supporters resist the sometimes grotesque defamations. And at the same time acknowledge feelings of threat like mine and take them seriously. In this society, it would be important to the left not to give Jews any reason to feel unsafe. But unfortunately we live in a different society. In one in which I fear, and actually expect, that I will be grouped into the right-wing campaign for my criticism.

These are not hypothetical worries. After the Dahabflex appearance, a colleague and I wrote a text that simply listed which murders the PFLP was responsible for. After it appeared, I wanted to put my phone away for several days. The comments came every minute, I was accused of siding with murderers and occupiers, I was described as the “pro-Israel language police” and October 7th was legitimized.

This is also why, as a journalist, I rarely write on this topic. And always with stomach pain. I also struggled with this text for a long time and had to be convinced by colleagues to write it. Because this is not about different positions. This is about me.

Not everyone who defends the left finds violence legitimate. But demonstrating unity seems more important than the real fears of Jews. It sounds to me like: Be quiet - or you'll play the right-wing game.

One of these defenses: Anti-Semitism is a problem for society as a whole and is much stronger in other parts of the population anyway. And it's true: anti-Semitism is a central ideological element for the extreme right. But just because things are worse elsewhere, do we have to be content with left-wing anti-Semitism?

Fortunately, many people do not accept such arguments in other areas. Even when it comes to racism in the security authorities, it is often emphasized that it is a problem for society as a whole and therefore also a problem for the police. I'm glad that left-wing activists still don't tire of denouncing this and calling for decisive countermeasures.

I'm glad that no one said: "Well, racism exists everywhere, including in the Greens," whenever Boris Palmer, the then Green mayor of Tübingen, used racist takes in public. Or that people didn't just come to terms with the fact that Sahra Wagenknecht, who was leaning towards the far right, was actually on the left. Only when it comes to anti-Semitism is this supposed to be the nature of things, unchangeable?

Don't we want to be better? I cannot be happy with this election result with all my heart. And yet I hope that the Greens and SPD do not bow to the pressure. That the left pulls itself together and makes it clear that there is no place for anti-Semites in its ranks. And that she also enforces it. That Berlin's next governing mayor is called Elif Eralp. I hope so for this city, which doesn't deserve another five years under a CDU head of government. And I hope so for myself and my family, who live in this city.