Effects of violence by Settlers and Israeli Defense Forces in the West Bank on attitudes towards antisemitic protest behavior among people in Germany. (Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, University College Dublin, 15th of August 2024)

Several studies highlight that the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians impacts protest behavior, political crime, and anti-Semitic attitudes in Germany. After the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalated into violence, both anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic attitudes increased within the German population. However, it has not yet been investigated in detail whether it makes a difference if Israeli state or non-state actors are the source of the use of violence. Our survey experiment therefore focuses on the question of whether the use of armed force by the Israeli military compared to Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank has a causal effect on the increase in criticism of Israel and the acceptance of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic protest behavior among people living in Germany. Based on data from over 3,000 respondents in the 3rd wave of "People in Germany: International", conducted in April/May 2023, this presentation highlights the following findings: The use of violence by the Israeli military (IDF) resulting in death of Palestinian civilians that clearly are not combattants (school aged children) causes increases in the acceptance of legal anti-Israeli criticism among people in Germany. Furthermore it increases the acceptance of anti-Semitic protest behavior that is illegal according to the German criminal code. However, such increas of the acceptance of illegal antisemitic protest behaviour could almost exclusively be found among people who already had a a least latent susceptibility to traditional anti-Semitic prejudices. In the case of the same kind of violence exercised by Jewish settlers with equal fatal consequences like the actions of the IDF such significant increases of the acceptance of illegal antisemitic protest behavior could not be found. In sum, the use of military force by the Israeli military causing death among clearly noncombattants civilians (Palestinian children) in the Palestinian West Bank is able to additionally radicalize individuals with an already latent anti-Semitic potential among adults living in Germany. However, such effects are not discernible among the majority of the German population, around three quarters of whom are clearly not anti-Semitic.