Germany’s Die Linke (Left Party), which won Berlin city-state elections on Sunday, has rejected accusations of antisemitism despite a history of anti-Jewish incidents and comments.
Left Party won 25.7% of the vote, defeating the CDU and the SPD by significant margins.
The win has sparked concerns from both Jewish groups and other political parties, with national SDP co-leader Baerbal Bas saying it would be “very difficult” to work with a party “large parts of which act in an antisemitic way.”
Shortly after the win, at the victory party, Left Party MP Ferat Kocak was photographed with Ibrahim Ibrahim – a well-known pro-Palestinian activist and PFLP and Hamas supporter.
According to Tagesspiegel, Ibrahim once described Yahya Sinwar, the slain Hamas mastermind of the Oct 7 2023 attacks on Israel, as a “martyr hero”.
Left Party leader denies accusations of antisemitism
After the event, Kocak said, “When people come up to me at our celebrations and want to take a photo with me, I assume that this is OK. I expressly distance myself from statements praising violence and terrorism.”
Also present was Issa Remmo, head of the German-based Arab crime family known for jewel heists, robberies and clan crime.
Left Party’s leader Elif Eralp – who will likely become Berlin’s first mayor of Turkish origin – has been compared to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani due to her pro-Palestine anti-capitalist populist beliefs.
During a press conference Monday, Eralp said the German government has “paid far too little attention to the perspectives of Muslim and Palestinian people – and, for that matter, to those of many Jewish people as well.”
“That is why we firmly oppose the instrumentalization of criticism directed at the Israeli government. We also oppose every form of antisemitism. And I believe it remains essential to clearly distinguish between the two. The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) failed to do that, and that is a major mistake,” she added.
Party co-chair Ines Schwerdtner said, “criticism of the Israeli government and the Israeli military should not be equated with antisemitism.”
“While we want to address the real problem of antisemitism, it must also be possible to criticize the Israeli government and military. These war crimes must be addressed just as much as the very real antisemitism and hatred of Jews in Germany.”
The party recently passed a resolution accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
In the summer, rapper Dahabflex faced a police investigation for chanting “Death to the IDF” and “Yallah, Yallah, Intifada” at a Left Party event in Berlin.
Additionally, an investigation by Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that officials in Left Party’s youth organization, Linksjugend, had used expressions including “Israel verrecke” (“Israel, drop dead”), referred to “Israeli concentration camps” and described events as a “genocide in the name of Judaism.” One federal spokesperson was also accused of minimizing Hamas in a chat group.
The party’s Palestine Solidarity working group has been also criticised for its relationship with BDS and its positions on Israel. Euronews found the group had described the October 7 Hamas massacre as an “act of resistance” and called for support for Palestinian resistance “in all its forms.”
‘Completely unrestrained antisemitism’
Israel’s ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor said the strong performance of the Left in the Berlin election should concern anyone who cares about the continued existence of Jewish life in this city.
“The completely unrestrained antisemitism that has emerged within this party is taking on a new political dimension with its rise to become the strongest political force,” he said. “We are long past talking about isolated slip-ups; this is a system. Red lines are being crossed again and again.”
He urged the Left to present a concrete plan for how it will stop the hatred of Israel and Jews within its own ranks and combat it at its roots.
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, noted that the Left Party has repeatedly attracted attention with antisemitic comments throughout its election campaign.
“The fact that a party on whose campaign stage the death of people was openly demanded emerged as the winner of the election worries me deeply. To date, there have been no personnel or political consequences,” he said.
“In the fight against the hatred of Jews, which this party tolerates in its ranks and allows to be expressed freely, the Left Party no longer has any credibility.”
Berlin Green MEP Sergey Lagodinsky told Der Spiegel that “If the leadership of the Berlin Left Party is serious about the fight against antisemitism, then it must structurally distance itself from antisemites in its own ranks.”
