The German state of Baden-Württemberg is facing numerous calls to fire its commissioner in charge of combating antisemitism after he called the “father of the Israel Defense Forces” a “murderer.”
Michael Blume said in a tweet that British Major-General Orde Wingate was a “war criminal” and “British murderer.”
Wingate, an ardent Zionist who was assigned to Mandatory Palestine and set up a joint British-Jewish unit to combat Arab terrorism that is considered a forerunner to the IDF, is celebrated in Israel with streets and squares named in his honor. The national center for physical education and sports, the Wingate Institute, is also named after him.
Blume’s comment led to multiple diplomatic, military and intelligence figures in Israel, the US and the UK calling for him to be fired or resign from his post as the state’s antisemitism czar, including former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren, former Trump-era acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Zionist Organization of America, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
Retired British army chief Colonel Richard Kemp told the news outlet: "That is enough to incite hatred from those opposed to Israel and Zionism. Germany, of all of the countries in the world, has a responsibility to fight Jew-hate at every turn and for one of its public officials – whether or not he’s an antisemitism commissioner – to support this sickness is a cause for national disgrace. Herr Blume shames Germany and should resign or be fired.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center also slammed Blume’s tenure in his position, noting that there was a serious increase of antisemitism in 2021, and that in 2019 Blume liked a Facebook post that compared Israel to the Nazis.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)