The young generation has a fundamental problem with racism and anti-Semitism? This accusation is undifferentiated and ignores important facts, says our columnist.

After the completely embarrassing and despicable Sylt video, which testifies to decadent neglect of wealth and a stupid understanding of history, the accusations against my generation are piling up: We have a fundamental problem with racism and anti-Semitism, as Anna Reitnauer, spokeswoman for the Young Forum of German, says -Israeli society.

This analysis falls short and is undifferentiated. First of all, the terms racism and anti-Semitism must be separated from each other. While racist statements and “theories” are those according to which population groups with certain biological characteristics are inherently superior or inferior to others in terms of their cultural performance, anti-Semitism is the antipathy or hostility towards Jews.

Franca Bauernfeind (born 1998) is currently studying for a master’s degree in political science at the University of Erfurt. The enthusiastic competitive swimmer, violinist and choir singer is a scholarship holder of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, is involved in various university committees and is active as a journalist. Franca Bauernfeind became known nationwide as federal chairwoman of the Ring of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) and member of the federal executive board of the CDU.

Since the founding of Israel, the latter term has also been associated with anti-Zionism, whereby Israel is described as an “artificial structure”, the state is denied its right to exist and its extinction is made a political program.

Both terms – racism and anti-Semitism – have (unfortunately) been around for thousands of years. So of course you are not a “discovery” of my generation. But the fact that a certain clientele of my age has a problem with Jews and does not shy away from anti-Semitism has been evident to all the world since October 7, 2023 at the latest: the educational elite of tomorrow on Germany’s campuses!

In Berlin, a Jewish student was beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized. At Humboldt University, an anti-Israel occupation was tolerated by the university administration for 24 hours. Anti-Semitic hate graffiti was put up during this time, including the triangle symbol of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas in conjunction with slogans in English such as “Resistance is justified.”

Such Hamas symbols are banned in Germany, just like the “swastika”. Even during the occupation, the slogans were shared on social networks. The toleration of the occupation and its inhumane graffiti demonstrate an unspeakable attitude on the part of the university president. At the Goethe University in Frankfurt, students are calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

In Hamburg, a board member of the German-Israeli Society was attacked after a lecture on the topic of “hostility to Jews”. The woman had to be treated in a hospital emergency room. There are also pro-Palestinian protests in Leipzig, Jena, Bremen and Cologne – the list goes on.

Anti-Semitic incidents are increasing at universities. In the anti-Israel protest milieu, the Hamas attack on October 7th is legitimized as an anti-colonial act of liberation. In the left-wing scene there is a long tradition, which reached a peak at universities in the 1960s and 1970s, of perceiving Israel as a white, racist and colonialist state. Radical representatives of postcolonialism therefore see Hamas as a liberation organization.

The perception that there is a glaring anti-Semitism problem on campus is true. However, this is a small radical minority from the left-wing ideological spectrum that uses pseudo-scientific “findings” such as postcolonial theory to legitimize hatred of Jews and the destruction of the state of Israel. She takes an extreme approach and has no understanding of history.

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It is undisputed that there is anti-Semitism elsewhere and that my generation also blows this pipe at schools, folk festivals and frivolous parties. There is also nothing to put into perspective about the Sylt scandal. But this is not a problem that only affects young people. It is a phenomenon throughout society.

So the more frightening realization these days is that there can be strong xenophobia even in well-off circles. Rather, we have to worry that parts of the media public and top politicians seem to differentiate: right-wing extremist racism and a Hitler salute on Sylt even bring the Chancellor and the Interior Minister into the spotlight.

Left-wing extremist, anti-Semitic occupiers at Berlin’s Humboldt University, who paint symbols of the terrorist organization Hamas in lecture halls and vandalize entire sections of the building, even receive support from the university president. However, Scholz and Faeser do not make a statement about this much more real danger for Jewish students. The impression comes to mind: For some traffic light representatives, Germany’s protection of Jewish life and the Israeli state only applies as long as it costs nothing and does not lead to logic breaks among their own clientele.