Events Detail

Speaker:
Lars Rensmann (University of Passau)

This event is part of an event series „The Hamas-Israel War and Antisemitism. Facts & Discussion (online seminar series in cooperation with Tel Aviv University)“.

In response to the massacres of October 7, we have witnessed an upsurge of public antisemitism around the world, including Germany. Yet, the susceptibility to antisemitism has been a resilient societal undercurrent in Germany and beyond well before the attacks and Israel’s military response. Empirical studies show that a generally hostile attitude towards the Jewish state correlate with, and pave the way to, the discrimination against and dehumanization of Jewish Israelis as well as overt antisemitism. The talk establishes a definition and criteria for identifying Israel-related antisemitism. The lecture then examines main features, agents, and factors driving contemporary Israel-related antisemitism in Germany and in a broader international context. A special focus is on the role of social media as facilitators of Manichean world-views on the Middle East, antisemitic stereotypes projected on Israel, and anti-Jewish hate speech, both overt and modernized.