Pro-Israelism and Antisemitism within Germany`s Populist Radical Right AfD

Abstract

The wider political frame in which the success of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has to be analysed is the rise of right-wing populist parties in Europe in the last 20 years. While adopting policy positions typically associated with the extreme right, those parties aim to distance themselves from their fascist or national-socialist predecessor parties and ideologies. Against this background this paper discusses the positions of the AfD towards Israel and the Jewish Communities in Germany, the party`s discomfort with Germany`s contemporary politics of remembrance, as well as the relationship of pro-Israel and anti-antisemitic political positions within the party. The paper concludes that the AfD uses the pro-Israeli and pro-Jewish positions taken by some of its members in order to whitewash its public image while doing nothing to challenge the antisemitism of others among its membership.