Hate Slogans and Stone Throwing: Increasing Number of Antisemitic Incidents in Vienna
Der Standard, May 2, 2024
Following recent incidents, IKG President Oskar Deutsch warns that “zizerlweise” the ground is being prepared for anti-Semitic attacks in Vienna
Vienna - In Vienna's Leopoldstadt district, anti-Semitic slogans were sprayed on the walls of stores owned by Jews and on the walls of houses on Wednesday night. The district is home to a large Jewish community. Overall, there has recently been an increase in anti-Semitic incidents, the president of the Jewish Community (IKG), Oskar Deutsch, told APA. “First the word, then the deed: the ground is gradually being prepared for anti-Semitic attacks in Vienna.”
According to recordings obtained by APA, “Victory to Palestine” and “Death to Zionism” were sprayed on the walls of several houses in Leopoldstadt. Israel's ambassador David Roet reacted with shock in a statement. “The ugly face of anti-Semitism is once again visible” - and this in the week of the commemorations in Mauthausen and Gusen. He also emphasized that the vast majority of Jews are Zionists, so the use of “Zionism” instead of “Judaism” should not mislead anyone.
Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) expressed her “deep shock and disgust at the anti-Semitic graffiti on the store of a descendant of Holocaust survivors in Vienna”. Anti-Semitism has no place in Austria. “We will continue to take a firm stand against all forms of anti-Semitism.” For Maximilian Krauss, head of the Vienna FPÖ parliamentary group, the slogans were evidence of a “dangerous left-wing and imported anti-Semitism”.
Calls for murder in the second district
Deutsch also listed other incidents from the recent past. A public lecture by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese - Deutsch described her as a “notorious demonizer of Israel and anti-Semite” - at the University of Vienna on Tuesday was followed by a march by an anti-Semitic group chanting hate slogans. The following night, anti-Semitic graffiti and calls for murder were posted on the walls of houses in a Jewish neighborhood. On 1 May, “terror slogans” were chanted at a demonstration on the Ring and calls were made for the destruction of Israel, and in the afternoon, young people who were recognizable as Jewish because of their clothing were pelted with stones while shouting “Free Palestine”.
“All of this is not happening in a vacuum,” emphasized Deutsch in his statement, in which he also saw the Vienna Festival, which starts in mid-May, as having a duty. The appointment to the virtual body “Council of the Republic” legitimizes supporters of the Israel boycott campaign BDS such as Annie Ernaux and Yanis Varoufakis, which is partly responsible for “a climate of hostility against Israel and thus against Jews in Austria”. Vienna's cultural policy is thus “indirectly supporting the radicalization of anti-Semitic groups” and the city government must act immediately.
Criticism of the Vienna Festival
The ÖVP demanded on Thursday that funding for the festival should be withdrawn if necessary. Director Milo Rau had only recently said in an interview that he could not detect any anti-Semitism in Ernaux and Varoufakis, said local councillor Laura Sachslehner angrily. The latter had even described the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 as an “act of resistance” by Hamas, she pointed out in a press release. If the festival does not adapt its invitation policy, it will have to pay back the funding it has received, Sachslehner demanded. (APA, 2.5.2024)