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If AfD is extreme, what is Israel?

by Hilal Kaplan

May 08, 2025 - 12:05 am GMT+3
Ron Huldai (L), mayor of Tel Aviv, and Kai Wegner (CDU), governing mayor of Berlin, sign a city partnership between Berlin and Tel Aviv, Rathaus, Berlin, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo)
Ron Huldai (L), mayor of Tel Aviv, and Kai Wegner (CDU), governing mayor of Berlin, sign a city partnership between Berlin and Tel Aviv, Rathaus, Berlin, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo)
by Hilal Kaplan May 08, 2025 12:05 am

Germany's pro-Israel stance stirs debate amid AfD labeling and intelligence controversies

Germany is one of the countries that provides the greatest support to the terrorist state Israel, which has publicized the genocide it has been committing in Palestine since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. German politicians have tried to prove that they are under the command of Zionist Israel with their competing statements.

For example, Olaf Scholz, the leader of the German Social Democrats, who came to power after years, once again declared in October 2024 that Israel's security is a part of Germany's "raison d'être." The CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who emerged victorious from the German elections, announced in February 2025 that he would summon Benjamin Netanyahu, the ringleader of the Zionist terrorist state, to his country and would not implement the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court. It should be recalled that Merz, despite forming a coalition of 328 MPs, did not receive the 316 votes required to pass the first round of the vote of confidence in Parliament.

Germany, which has been criticized internationally for its support for Israel, has defined the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) as “an extremist organization that threatens democracy” in order to regain some of its image as a “defender of democracy” and to shake the domestic political balance. In fact, the first signs of this decision were given in 2021, when the German domestic intelligence service classified the AfD as a “suspected right-wing extremist organization.” The AfD has increased its vote almost every year since this decision, which was postponed by a court ruling for two years.

The German domestic intelligence agency's designation of the AfD as an “extremist organization” is a red herring for two reasons. One is the German state's handling of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), one of its greatest institutional embarrassments.

This organization, which was followed by the police and intelligence for years, murdered Muslim Turks and was finally limited to “three people” after a show trial. So, in a sense, the AfD being defined as an “extremist organization” by the German intelligence agencies will perhaps lead to its further criminalization in the future.

The second reason, which I think is as important as the first one, is that the head of the BfV, Thomas Haldenwang, who oversees the AfD, appeared in a tie with an Israeli flag. It would be very delusional to think that the head of the intelligence agency, who has openly declared that he will serve Zionist Israel, will adequately fight an extremist organization in his country.

About the author
Hilal Kaplan is a journalist and columnist. Kaplan is also board member of TRT, the national public broadcaster of Türkiye.
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