Germany will not back organizations that operate abroad unless they commit to fighting anti-Semitism, the country's first anti-Semitism commissioner announced Thursday.
Dr. Felix Klein, who took up his newly created post in the federal Interior Ministry in May, said organizations will have to enter into binding contracts to fight anti-Semitism. Such contracts will state that if an organization is found to have been promoting anti-Semitic activity, or if it fails to act to ensure that its funding does not support such activity, it will be denied further funding.
In response to an Israel Hayom query, Klein said the new policy will extend to German-funded projects in Palestinian cities and "all over the world."
Klein said he would also push for the amendment of Germany's anti-discrimination law to ensure foreign entities would not be allowed to show bias against Israelis on Germany territory. Klein was alluding to a recent case in which Kuwait Airways refused to let an Israeli board to fly from Frankfurt to Bangkok. A lawsuit filed against the carrier in Germany was dismissed by the court, which said the case did not violate the current language of the law.
Klein also unveiled a new center to allow German citizens to report anti-Semitic incidents. Such a center already operates in Berlin, but the new center, which will also have an online reporting mechanism, would have offices nationwide.
Klein said the new site is "the most important project of my term of office."
The announcement comes one year after Israeli Yorai Feinberg was subject to an anti-Semitic tirade by a passerby near his Israeli restaurant in Berlin. More than 1,000 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in the first nine months of 2018, the German Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
