German diplomat for Palestine liked antisemitic and neo-Nazi/KKK tweets

Germany’s best selling paper Bild broke the story and showed screenshots of the Tweets on its website, stating the diplomat liked a large number of “antisemitic and anti-Israel” tweets.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
A neo Nazi attends a rally in Budapest October 23, 2009. The words, the motto of the S.S., read "my honor is my loyalty" (photo credit: LASZIO BALOGH/REUTERS)
A neo Nazi attends a rally in Budapest October 23, 2009. The words, the motto of the S.S., read "my honor is my loyalty"
(photo credit: LASZIO BALOGH/REUTERS)
The director of the German Foreign Ministry’s representation for the Palestinian territories, Christian Clages, was revealed on Thursday to have liked scores of antisemitic tweets while using his government Twitter feed.
Germany’s best-selling paper Bild broke the story and showed screenshots of the tweets on its website, stating the diplomat liked a large number of “antisemitic and anti-Israel” tweets.
Bild wrote that Clages praised a tweet showing “a video of a two-minute mob attack on Israeli soldiers captioned with the words ‘Hats off!’”
The paper commented on a second tweet from Clages, saying: “An article that compares the work of the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem with the historical account of ‘totalitarian states’ was liked by him as a ‘must-read.”’
Clages previously served the German ambassador to Lebanon.
Bild noted that “Even an exchange between leading US neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier David Duke and a Palestinian follower about an alleged Jewish massacre, the diplomat liked with a heart. ‘Jewish racists’ would have ‘mutilated innocent Palestinians, raped and led through Jewish villages before they were executed,’ claims Duke (formerly head of the racist Ku Klux Klan) in his tweet. He received a reply from the Palestinian user: ‘* Zionists.’’’
While it is unclear what the asterisk represents in the tweet, Clages was apparently enthusiastic about it and liked the exchange between Duke and the Palestinian.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, told the Post on Thursday that “If Germany hopes to play a constructive role in bringing Middle East peace, this is hardly the way to do it, to assign a diplomat who is obviously an antisemite and is adding fuel to the fire. Instead of having a person on the ground to explain antisemitism, he [Clages] encourages antisemitic thinking and theories.”
Bild wrote that “The fact that the tweet by Neo-nazi Duke, however, misses any historical basis and disseminates the most crudely antisemitic narrative, did not seem to bother the diplomat.”
The paper reported that “An activist who asked spitefully, on the occasion of the first Israeli Moon mission, when Israel will occupy the Moon, got a ‘Like’ from Clages. Likewise, a user who claimed, without a source, that Israel only ‘respects its own religious holidays,’ received a like from Clages.”
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman wrote The Jerusalem Post by email that it finds the content of the tweets “unacceptable” and “emphatically” distances itself from the tweets. The spokesman said the ministry launched an investigation and noted that the liked tweets were deleted. The spokesman declined to say if Clages would be dismissed, but added that diplomat has expressly distanced himself from the statements of the tweets.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry has been embroiled in a series of alleged antisemitism and pro-Iranian regime scandals on the watch of its top, Social Democratic Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Niels Annen, the Social Democratic undersecretary, celebrated Iran’s regime in February at Tehran’s embassy in Berlin. Annen opposes a full ban on the members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a US and EU designated terrorist organization.
The Post asked Maas if he plans to sack Annen, but did not receive a response by press time.
Maas said he went into politics “because of Auschwitz.” He seeks to circumvent US sanctions against Iran’s regime to enable German and European business with Iran’s clerical regime. The US classifies Iran’s regime as the leading international state sponsor of terrorism.