BERLIN — One of Germany’s largest pro-Israel demonstrations in recent memory took place here Saturday — with no support from German Jewish groups.
The demonstrators, waving Israeli flags and marching under the slogan “Germany on Israel’s Side,” were mainly fundamentalist Christians who oppose a Palestinian state and believe Jewish control of the biblical Land of Israel is one of the preconditions for Jesus’ return.
The event, which police said drew 4,000 participants, received publicity and informational material from the Israeli Embassy here. However, the Union of Jewish Students in Germany distanced itself completely from the idea that Jews must accept Jesus as their savior and from the anti-Muslim beliefs of some the organizers, according to a statement distributed by a handful of Jewish students at the march.
Their protest attracted the attention of German media and underscored the question being asked elsewhere: Just how far should Israel supporters go in accepting support during troubled times?
In the United States, Jewish groups and Israeli diplomats have grown less reluctant to accept evangelical Christian support for Israel during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian violence — and there is a Christian rally for Israel slated for October.
But in Germany, evangelical Christians are fewer in number and much less accepted — even by mainstream Protestants.
Jewish students at the rally said many fundamentalist groups “do not recognize the right of Jews to exist if they do not believe in Jesus, that is, take on the Christian faith,” according to the students’ flier. “We sharply condemn this goal.
“At the same time, we distance ourselves from the political orientation of the demonstration.”
The main speaker, Ludwig Schneider, has in the past said Israel should wage a “Holy War” against its enemies.
Said the students: “We completely reject this incitement against Muslims.”
Gunter Keil, head of The Bridge Berlin-Jerusalem, the fundamentalist Christian umbrella organization that organized the demonstration, denied such contentions.
While he said Judaism is “completed” through acceptance of Jesus, he stressed that his group does not have a “division devoted to a mission to the Jews.
“We have nothing against the Palestinian people, but for us the Palestinians are Arabs,” said Keil. “The word ‘Palestinian’ is made up…so there can’t be a Palestinian state in Israel.”
Keil, who says his group has 500 prayer circles across Germany, said a Saturday was chosen for the demonstration to make it clear that it had been planned by non-Jewish groups and not by the Israeli Embassy.
But the Israeli Embassy publicized the demonstration in its electronic newsletter, and in a ceremony last Friday at the embassy in Berlin, Ambassador Shimon Stein accepted a statement of support from the group. It had more than 6,000 signatures gathered through the Web site “Jerusalem — Shalom.”
The tacit endorsement troubled some observers.
“I share the goal to show solidarity with Israel, but I see certain problems here,” said Martin Kloke, a scholar on Israeli-German relations and an editor at a textbook publishing company in Berlin. “Some of these groups only support Israel because they think Israel and the Jews have a certain role in the apocalyptic times, in which they think we now live.”
Mordechay Lewy, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy here, countered such criticism. “If someone is demonstrating for Israel, for a just cause, shall I tell him please don’t demonstrate? It is a free country, and I cannot prevent them.”
The demonstrators marched from the Foreign Ministry to the Reichstag, the seat of the German Parliament, where they heard several speeches, punctuated by Israeli and Jewish music.
Many demonstrators waved Israeli flags and some wore yarmulkes and Stars of David, though they said they were not Jewish.
Signs bore messages such as “We stand by Israel,” “God will bless you” and “Christians on the side of Israel.”
Someone blew a shofar on stage, and a few demonstrators who had brought their own rams’ horns blew them as well. The Sh’ma was chanted in Hebrew, with many in the crowd joining in.
“People didn’t know who these demonstrators are,” said Uriel Kashi of the Union of Jewish Students in Germany, who distributed the protest leaflets. “When Ludwig Schneider talked, people were really shocked and getting a really strange attitude toward Israel solidarity.”
Schneider, a journalist who has lived in Israel for more than 25 years, told the crowd “Whoever hates Israel hates God.”
There was especially loud applause when he said the “bloodthirsty” enemies of Israel “should turn to our God.”
Explained Keil: “We work on a purely biblical basis,” he said of The Bridge Berlin-Jerusalem. “We don’t talk of occupied zones or the West Bank. We talk of Samaria and Judea. And in our view, they belong to Israel.”
Kloke said this view is so extreme among some groups that they have indirectly hinted that the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was a punishment from God, to prevent Israel from giving away land.
Lewy said those who justify the assassination of Rabin are “lunatics.” But “there should not be a witch hunt against people who are ready to do something for Israel.”
The Israeli government, said Kloke, “has welcomed this kind of solidarity for years. They argue that Israel is lonely and doesn’t have so many friends so we can’t be too choosy.”
That view was echoed at the event, where informational material from the Israeli Embassy and the Jewish National Fund was provided alongside fundamentalist Christian material on the Holy Land and the New Testament.
“We have so few friends in Germany in this horrible time in Israel,” said Sara Rozenbaum, who represents the JNF in Germany. “Our Christian friends are always with us together on the front for Israel.”
Rozenbaum said she tries “not to think about” the missionary aspect, “because I come from a very religious family and I love my family and I love my religion.”