Torch a synagogue? No problem. It’s just expressing a political opinion.

In Germany, at least. A second court has now confirmed:

A German regional court in the city of Wuppertal affirmed a lower court decision last Friday stating that a violent attempt to burn the city’s synagogue by three men in 2014 was a justified expression of criticism of Israel’s policies.

Johannes Pinnel, a spokesman for the regional court in Wuppertal, outlined the court’s decision in a statement.

Three German Palestinians sought to torch the Wuppertal synagogue with Molotov cocktails in July, 2014. The local Wuppertal court panel said in its 2015 decision that the three men wanted to draw “attention to the Gaza conflict” with Israel. The court deemed the attack not to be motivated by antisemitism.

Now perhaps in a legal sense, the motivation shouldn’t (but probably does) matter. Attack a building because you hate its occupants or attack a building because you hate the policy of a country and the damage is the same — and in this case blessedly light. The concept of a “hate crime” is Orwellian on the face of it.

But Germany, of all nations, ought to recognize an attack on Jews and Judiasm when it sees one. To tell yourself — and the public — and the perpetrators — that torching a synagogue in Germany is a form of legitimate political protest against Israel is delusional. Either that or it’s excuse-making and enabling.

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6 thoughts on “Torch a synagogue? No problem. It’s just expressing a political opinion.”

  1. If I burn down a mosque because of the Christian/Jewish persecution perpetrated by anyone of the multitudes of Islamic states it’s all good then, I am thinking not. I am continued to be gab struck by the contortions the left goes through to justify away everything Islamic. Do they somehow think that they would get a pass for some of their life styles just because they are being sensitive to them? If so they are really stuck on stupid.
    And your observation that of all countries to recognize what’s happing, Germany so be on the to of the list is an excellent point. I am finally reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Riech” and the parallels between the National Socialist and the Islamist is to close for comfort.

  2. What an outdated excuse. I believe it was used over a thousand times on 11th and 12th November 1938. A day or so after Kristallnacht as it were.

  3. I am waiting on the communal assessment to offset the court costs. What is the the German word for “Jizya”?

    1. Is there that much booze in the world, that one can become drunk enough to justify such a horrific and atrocious act as this? I think not. In America, if I were to firebomb a mostly African American church, because I don’t like black people, could that be merely be passed off as a gesture of political opinion? At what point does political opinion become shown to be the offensive and inhumane hatred that it is? I wonder why it is that the people of the world do not see such hatred for the Jewish people as wrong. Why the people of the world never condemn those who continue to allow the rabid anti semitism to grow, after what happened in the middle of the last century. I see these things and I sometimes can do nothing but shake my head, and then lower it in shame, that our human race can accept such things.

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