(MENAFN- Trend News Agency ) Acting Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in an interview with German national newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he supports creating the position of anti-Semitism commissioner in the next German government, Deutsche Welle reports.
The conservative De Maiziere said his support for the commissioner went beyond the most recent incidents — in which to demonstrate against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital — and was also based on the recommendation of an independent commission of experts.
Germany's Central Council of Jews has also to be part of the chancellor's office.
In the interview, de Maiziere expressed his concern over the increase in anti-Semitic agitation in Germany.
"Each crime motivated by anti-Semitism is one to many and shameful for our country," he told the paper. He also said that occurrences of derogatory comments, inappropriate jokes and discrimination towards "our fellow Jewish citizens" were on the rise.
"Hatred towards Jews must next be allowed to take hold again in Germany," he added, alluding to , in which six million Jews were killed.
His words on the subject of anti-Semitism were in the aftermath of protests in front of the US Embassy in central Berlin and in the immigrant-heavy Neukölln neighborhood.
The minister spoke out in favor of cracking down on protesters' actions that demonstrate a hatred of Israel, including through police action when possible.
"We cannot tolerate it when a country's flag is burned in public," he said. "It is the symbolic annihilation of a country's right to exist."
Current German law makes it illegal to burn flags and symbols of a foreign state that have been officially installed. Burning homemade or non-official flags is not a crime, though incitement to violence against Jews is.
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