{"id":53174,"date":"2026-07-12T12:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/53174\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:25:08","slug":"germany-moves-to-criminalize-denial-of-israels-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/53174\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany moves to criminalize denial of Israel’s existence"},"content":{"rendered":"

German parliament<\/a> has advanced a bill that would make denial of Israel\u2019s right to exist a criminal offense and which could be punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

The legislation received backing from Germany\u2019s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. It will now travel to the lower house, the Bundestag.<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, anyone who publicly or at a gathering denies the right of the State of Israel to exist<\/a>, or calls for its elimination, would face punishment. In legal terms, this means Germany is expanding \u00a7130 StGB (its criminal code) beyond Holocaust denial to include existential denial of Israel.<\/p>\n

According to the bill\u2019s justification, existing criminal provisions (such as incitement of hatred, approval of criminal acts, or the use of symbols of terrorist organizations) currently apply only in individual cases and are insufficient.<\/p>\n

Germany experiencing heightened antisemitism<\/p>\n

The Bundesrat argued that Germany is experiencing heightened antisemitism, with the number of antisemitic incidents increasing from 1,957 in 2020 to 8,627 in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"AA general view during a session of the lower house of parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany July 1, 2020 (credit: REUTERS\/FABRIZIO BENSCH)<\/p>\n

While many people in Germany have peacefully protested against the war and the suffering of Palestinian civilians, the Bundesrat stated that protests have also repeatedly included challenges to Israel\u2019s legitimacy as a state.<\/p>\n

The Bundesrat added that Israel\u2019s establishment and acceptance by the international community are closely connected to Germany\u2019s responsibility for the Shoah<\/a> and the necessity of finding a secure homeland for Jews.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the “denial of Israel\u2019s right to exist ultimately not only relativizes the Holocaust but also disregards Germany\u2019s constitutional order, which was created as a response to the violence and arbitrary rule of National Socialism,” the Bundesrat said.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the law would apply to public statements and assembly contexts, including online speech, but only if the act can reasonably promote antisemitic violence or arbitrariness.<\/p>\n

The bill does not restrict criticism of Israeli government policies\u00a0<\/p>\n

It does not restrict criticism of Israeli government<\/a> policies or theoretical debate about Middle East politics.<\/p>\n

Art and academic works are exempt to the extent covered by existing protections for science and art.<\/p>\n

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, welcomed the Bundesrat’s decision.<\/p>\n

“The message is clear: anyone who denies Israel\u2019s right to exist and spreads antisemitic incitement will not get away with it without consequences,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My sincere thanks go to Minister-President Boris Rhein for his determined commitment to this landmark legislative initiative, as well as to all the federal states that supported it.”<\/p>\n

“I sincerely hope that the German Bundestag takes up the decision and swiftly passes the necessary amendments to the Criminal Code.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German parliament has advanced a bill that would make denial of Israel\u2019s right to exist a criminal offense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42759,3647,5,4807,57],"class_list":["post-53174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-anti-israel","tag-antisemitism","tag-germany","tag-holocaust","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}