Not content with frequent planned attacks on Yuletide Christmas markets, it seems that Islamists are now infiltrating them. Along the usual seasonal fare, a festive gathering in Darmstadt, Hesse, organized by the Evangelical Michaelsgemeinde, offered a wide range of pro-Hamas and antisemitic products to its attendees.
Backed by a From the River to the Sea poster, activists sold a variety of radical-chic tat. This included:
- Keychains emblazoned with the Hamas logo
- Cloth bags featuring a map of Israel inscribed with the word Palestine
- Gingerbread hearts displaying political messages
- Items applying the Holocaust-inspired slogan ‘Never Again’ to the Israel-Hamas war sparked by the October 7th Islamist pogrom.
Campaigners also distributed flyers accusing the Jewish state of genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.
According to Hesse’s antisemitism commissioner Uwe Becker of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the event was being misused to spread hatred of Jews:
Unbelievable, completely unacceptable and absolutely scandalous how a platform was infamously provided for Hamas propaganda and Holocaust relativization in Darmstadt.
The Jewish Community of Darmstadt organisation, backed by several allies, responded with a formal criminal complaint against the Michaelsgemeinde (Michael’s Community) parish and the “Darmstadt4Palestine” group.
The parish is affiliated to the larger Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, which described the Christmas market as “scandalous”:
The desire to stand up for people in need—including in Gaza—is fundamentally legitimate. However, a general anti-Israel and delegitimizing choice of words and the sale of objects with symbols that are connected to the terrorist organization Hamas and the questioning of Israel’s right to exist are unacceptable to us.
Perhaps the only positive news about this particular event is that it wasn’t the target of an Islamist attack.
