In its anti-Palestinian witch-hunt, Germany is seizing Jewish funds again

Six months into Israel’s genocidal slaughter in Gaza, the apartheid regime has ruthlessly killed over 33,000 Palestinians, injured more than 70,000 others, and displaced and starved millions.

Meanwhile, the repression of pro-Palestine solidarity in Germany, one of Israel’s most zealous backers, is increasingly focusing on anti-Zionist Jews.

On 27 March, the Berlin-based organisation Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, better known by its German shorthand Jüdische Stimme, announced that its bank account with the Berliner Sparkasse, the leading bank in the German capital, had been “frozen with immediate effect.”

“In 2024, Jewish money is once again being confiscated by a German bank,” the group posted on Instagram, alluding to the involvement of financial institutions in Nazi Germany’s policy of Aryanisation, which saw the systematic expulsion of Jews from economic life.

"[The German establishment] is resorting to increasingly ill-conceived and illegal containment strategies in its desperate attempts to halt the growing momentum of the Palestine solidarity movement in the country since October 7"

Unlike then, in today’s Germany there is no legal basis for freezing Jüdische Stimme’s account: “As a public corporation, the bank is bound by public law and may therefore not arbitrarily freeze accounts without providing an explanation, which it did not,” the anti-Zionist group went on to say in its statement.

Berliner Sparkasse’s rogue move is yet another instance of an established ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ pattern of behaviour by a fanatically pro-Zionist German establishment that is resorting to increasingly ill-conceived and illegal containment strategies in its desperate attempts to halt the growing momentum of the Palestine solidarity movement in the country since October 7.

Far from providing a credible explanation as to why the account was frozen other than that it was a “preventive” measure (prevention against what?), the letter sent to Jüdische Stimme by the bank demands that the organisation submit a list of names and addresses of its members, claiming it is “updating customer data”.

This has prompted concerns that in Germany’s increasingly repressive climate with regards to Palestine solidarity, Berliner Sparkasse’s request is the latest instalment of a state-sanctioned political witch-hunt against those who oppose Israel’s Western-backed genocide in Gaza.

Amid Germany's support for Israel's war on Gaza, Palestinians find their social circles shrinking as many Germans are too scared to speak up, writes Dima Hamdan ⬇ https://t.co/8jwzaNxH4J

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) April 7, 2024

Jüdische Stimme is taking legal action against the bank, which outed itself as an early cheerleader of Israel’s exterminationist policies in Gaza. 

As the Israeli military began carpet bombing the besieged strip and political commentators were already using the word “genocide” only a week after Hamas’s October 7 attack, Berliner Sparkasse still had its city-wide ATMs display heartfelt pro-Israeli condolence messages.

The timing of this latest act of German-made anti-Palestinian repression, which pro-Palestinian Jews are increasingly finding themselves at the receiving end of, supports this suspicion.

It came three weeks before Berlin is set to host a highly anticipated Palestine Congress from April 12-14, one of the first of its kind in Germany and co-organised by Jüdische Stimme.

Planned speakers and panellists include Greece’s former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, German-Palestinian human rights lawyer Nadija Samour and Gaza war surgeon Ghassan Abu- Sittah, among other names in national and international Palestine solidarity.

According to Jüdische Stimme’s statement, the freezing of its bank account which has been used to receive donations and ticket sales is an intimidatory attempt to cancel the Palestine solidarity event, one that is being ferociously maligned in the German press as a “hate- summit” that calls for “the destruction of the Jewish State.”

The group’s suspicion was confirmed by the last-minute cancellation of a fundraiser for the Palestine Congress due to “pressure” from the city’s authorities who cited “security concerns”. Eventually, an alternative venue was found to host the event.

The McCarthyite climate of anti-Palestinian persecution in the country is best described in a statement made by the Palestine Congress itself: 

“While the German government shamelessly supports genocide before the eyes of the world, democratic rights are undermined here in Germany to silence protests for a ceasefire. Freedom of assembly, freedom of organisation, freedom of the press, and academic freedom have been massively restricted,” writes the organising team.

"The latest attempt of a German financial institution to de-bank an anti-Zionist group has further lowered the post-October 7 inhibition threshold of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany"

This is not the first time Jüdische Stimme’s funds are being targeted: in 2019, the same year the German Bundestag passed a non-binding resolution labelling the Palestinian-led global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as anti-Semitic, the Jewish activist group’s then account with the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft was closed due to its support for BDS.

The latest attempt of a German financial institution to de-bank an anti-Zionist group has further lowered the post-October 7 inhibition threshold of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany.

More broadly, it helps push the national conversation on Palestine even further towards the hegemonic Israeli-dictated dual narrative that propagates rigorous genocide denialism and absurdist self-victimisation on the one hand and the illegitimacy of resisting one’s annihilation on the other.

Six months into the world’s first televised and live-streamed genocide, the German capital’s largest consumer bank with its 1.6 million customers would rather spend its time and resources persecuting Jews in Germany’s increasingly anti- Semitic fight against Palestine solidarity.

Adding insult to injury, while Berliner Sparkasse has confiscated Jewish funds in a harrowing reminder to Germany’s Nazi past, the same bank has no qualms in providing banking services to the right-wing extremist political party Die Heimat, better known under its former name NPD.

This is emblematic of the egregious double standards that pervade German anti-racism, which refuses to see Zionism as racist.

Germany’s continued support for Israel’s extermination campaign in Gaza and repression of Palestine solidarity at home is coming increasingly at the cost of not only its holier-than-thou “Never again” Vergangenheitsbewältigung credentials, but also its global reputation as a liberal democracy that adheres to both domestic and international law.

As I write, Germany is facing accusations at the ICJ of aiding in Israel’s genocide, and multiple legal proceedings having been initiated – by nation states and civil society alike – against the German government and members of the media for their complicity.

The sad fact is that antisemitism has become yet another expression of the virulent anti- Palestinian racism prevalent in German society and its incorrigibly colonial discourse on Israel/Palestine.

Timo Al-Farooq is a freelance journalist based in Berlin, Germany.

Follow him on Instagram: @talrooq

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.