Germany’s deputy leader has said “too few” Muslims in the country condemned the Oct 7 attack Hamas inflicted on Israel.

Robert Habeck urged Germany’s four million Muslims to distance themselves from anti-Semitism, saying some have been “too hesitant” to condemn Hamas.

“Anti-Semitism should not be tolerated in any form,” the German vice-chancellor and Green politician said, adding that “the scale of the Islamist demonstrations in Berlin and other cities in Germany is unacceptable and requires a tough political response”.

Mr Habeck mentioned prosecution, visa cancellation and deportation as potential punishments for burning Israel flags.

Around 40 people celebrated Hamas’s attack in Berlin and further pro-Israel demonstrations have contained Islamist flags.

Great resistance

Mr Habeck also criticised the left for its response to the war.

“Anticolonialism cannot lead to antisemitism. That’s why parts of the political left should rethink their arguments and be wary of the story of [Hamas’s] ‘great resistance’.”

Armin Laschet, the former Christian Democrat leader, said Mr Habeck’s intervention was a “necessary, argumentatively strong and well-founded domestic and foreign policy stance of Germany”.

“The vice-chancellor impressively shows how he not only finds the right words… but actually addresses everything that is important now,” said Paul Ronzheimer, deputy editor of Bild newspaper. 

The influential journalist described it as “the speech to the nation that one would expect from Chancellor Scholz” as others wondered whether the taciturn head of government was missing in action.