Germany Issues New Antisemitic Codes, Symbols, And Imagery, Conflating Anti-Genocide And Pro-Palestinian Advocacy.

Berlin; May 2026: Germany has published a new brochure outlining what it describes as antisemitic codes, symbols, and imagery, conflating anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian advocacy with antisemitism.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the pamphlet, titled “Hidden Messages-Anti-Semitic Codes and Ciphers”, was published last week and it “aims to raise awareness of subtle forms of anti-Semitism”. The 80-pages brochure catalogues a list of concepts, terms and images ranging from Nazi-era propaganda to contemporary symbols against Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza. It conflates these diverse symbols by claiming they all carry an antisemitic meaning.

Germany is one of the key supporters of Israel’s genocide, despite its own history of committing genocide against Jews, Slavs and Roma during the Second World War, and in Namibia in the early 20th century. Germany’s police units are known their brutality against pro-Palestinian protesters. In 2025, Germany tried to deport a group of Western activists over their alleged behaviour at demonstrations, which campaigners said was an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian voices.

Throughout Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, Germany has backed the onslaught through its military and political support. Germany is one of Israel’s closest, a long-time ally and the second-largest exporter of arms to Israel after the United States. It supplies about 30% of Israel’s imported weapons, second only to the United States, which accounts for nearly 60%. The German government has approved arms exports to Israel worth over 485 million euros since the start of the Gaza genocide in October 2023, according to official data published by the Bundestag.

The just published antisemitic document comes days after the BfV released a dossier titled “Secular pro-Palestinian extremism”, in which the watermelon symbol and Handala, a cartoon of a 10 years old Palestinian refugee, are listed as “identifying marks” of secular “pro-Palestinian extremism” in Germany.

In the brochure, the BfV used the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism, claiming it to be a “widely accepted definition”.

“Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. It is directed in word or deed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, as well as against Jewish community institutions or religious institutions”, the brochure reads. The brochure adds that “the State of Israel, understood as a Jewish collective, may also be the target of such attacks”.

Intended audiences for the brochure include teachers, “who can use the booklet as supplementary material in the classroom”, and other educational staff, who can use it as a “guideline to help recognise any anti-Semitic remarks in the working environment”. The brochure is further addressed to “interested members of the public who follow political and social developments in Germany and wish to make sense of their observations”.

Further antisemitic terms listed in the brochure pertain to imagery of “rats”, “monkeys” and “parasites” as well as “Wall Street” or “The East Coast”, described as “a geographical reference to New York, the financial hub allegedly controlled by Jews”.

Mixed in with these antisemitic symbols are examples of pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel. Examples used by the BfV were taken from social media channels such as X, Facebook and Telegram, as well as the unregulated and anonymous imageboard 4chan.

In the final chapter, the brochure shows an image of a bloody classroom with the title “Israel kills an entire classroom every day – 28 kids”. Circulated online to raise awareness about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the image illustrates the significant death toll amongst children.

Data by Save the Children from September 2025 revealed that at least 01 Palestinian child has been killed every hour on average by Israeli forces in Gaza, with the number of children killed having surpassed 20,000.

While the BfV inserted a disclaimer under the image indicating that “there is significantly more room for interpretation as to whether, or to what extent, anti-Semitic content is present”, the BfV argues that the image reverses perpetrator and victim. It adds that the image “portrays Israel as the sole aggressor, whilst the terrorist attack by Hamas on 07th October 2023 and the complex background to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not mentioned at any point”.

It further states that “the colour red and the inscription ’28 CHILDREN’ may revive the motif of the ‘Jewish child murderer’ (depicted in Chapter 2.3) by framing the deaths as a ritual act and an act of murderous intent rather than as unintended victims of war”.

Another image featured in the brochure depicts an Israeli soldier unplugging the power of an incubator carrying a Palestinian infant, as the soldier asks: “Do you condemn Hamas?”

The image refers to the 09th November 2023 attack, when Israeli airstrikes hit al-Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, cutting off the neonatal intensive care unit’s oxygen supply and forcing staff to evacuate, leaving babies that could not be transported alone in intensive care, according to Doctors Without Borders. On 28th November 2023, during a ceasefire, doctors were able to return and found 04 babies dead.

As argued in the brochure, “The cartoon offers a simplistic answer to a complex political question, because it reduces the Middle East conflict to a binary framework of ‘good’ (the innocent newborn baby/’the Palestinians’) versus ‘evil’ (the violent State of Israel)”.

The image is considered to be antisemitic, BfV claims, since it “suggests that ‘the Jews’ stand outside the bounds of all human morality due to a ruthless lust for power. Anyone who abuses a child as a pawn in their own interests reveals themselves to be the ‘absolute evil’ against which all resistance becomes a duty“, it adds.

Team Maverick.