Oh, my German is quite close to perfect, I’m sure I didn’t miss anything. And as I understood the guy with the flag, he wasn’t warning that actual anti-Semitism would come up, but indicting the whole demonstration as it was for being anti-Semitic by semantic association.

By the way, this movement, contrary to what the German media has been reporting, is not new nor inspired by Occupy Wall Street – rather, it’s been around since May, initiated by Spanish expats (at least in Leipzig) in solidarity with the social protest movement there (Democracía Real Ya / Real Democracy Now / Echte Demokratie Jetzt), which in turn was inspired by Egypt (http://bit.ly/v8alGZ [German]). I’ve been to other demonstrations of theirs in Leipzig before and I’ve met one of their main guys, and so far no intolerance or racism.

I’m grateful for your input and I’m sure anti-Semites will take advantage of this movement sooner or later, but that’s not any kind of reason to be against the movement as such or label it “systemically anti-Semitic” as that anti-German guy did.

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of this. It’s sad to see, and frankly scary, but I don’t think this can be taken to indicate the whole global movement (or loose association of similar movements, rather) is antisemitic. Antisemitism tends to crop up in times of turmoil, and antisemites can be found in almost any political movement (just as can other types of racists and intolerant assholes). They have to be fought wherever they are found, but should never be used as an excuse to denounce whole movements, unless their intolerant and hateful views are integrated in the movement’s position, or at least the movements fail to denounce true open intolerance by prominent figures within them. This is all a far cry from claiming that since antisemites think “the Jews” control the banks, any protest displaying anti-banker sentiment is necessarily antisemitic.
But I’m not sure that’s what you meant to say – where do you stand on this?

Thanks for the link. It was a tough read (loooong sentences!), but interesting, and good practice for my German! :)

For those who can’t read it: it’s biting criticism (by an Israeli historian) of a paper by two sociologists who claim to point out antisemitism in Germany’s hard-line Left party. He particularly points out that the factual basis is thin and consists in part of myths and rumors, and concludes that it’s more of an anti-German political attack than valid scholarly analysis. A major factor in this is that they unquestioningly bundle together antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and criticism of Israel.

And we should discuss this a little further once I’m back in Leipzig. :)

Grüße aus Tel Aviv!

Hagen