German Left Party leader calls MP a 'sneaky Jew'

A German party head used an antisemitic slur to insult an MP but despite his apology, the absence lives on in social media.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Updated: OCTOBER 17, 2017 07:22
The interior of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building (photo credit: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS)
The interior of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building
(photo credit: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS)
The head of the German Left Party in the city of Saarlouis, situated in the state of Saarland, used an antisemitic phrase on his Facebook page to denigrate an MP in his party, according to a Monday report in the regional paper Saarbrücker Zeitung.
 
Mekan Kolasinac, the chairman of the Left Party in Saarlouis, called the party's federal head, Bernd Riexinger, a "sneaky Jew."
 
Kolasinac told the paper he wrote the anti-Jewish entry but regrets it. He said it was a mistake and he intended to write "Judas" instead of "Jew." Kolasinac said he apologized on his Facebook page and apologized to "my Jewish friends."
 
Birgit Huonker, a spokeswoman for the Left Party in Saarland, said: "Antisemitism in one's party. Bad."
 
The Saarbrücker Zeitung said the background to Kolasinac's verbal attack on Riexinger is a BILD paper article, in which Riexinger allegedly sought to oust the party's parliamentary head Sahra Wagenknecht. Riexinger is co-chair of the federal Left Party.
The Left Party has been plagued over the years by allegations of antisemitism and anti-Israel scandals, according to critics.
The Left Party in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia attempted last week to pass a Boycott, Divestment,Sanctions (BDS) motion against Israel.
 
Wagenknecht refused to participate in the standing ovation for Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Israeli President Shimon Peres during his 2010 Holocaust remembrance speech in the Bundestag. Her action along with other Left MPs was praised by Germany's NPD neo-Nazi party. 
Wagenknecht defended her party’s lawmakers Inge Höger and Annette Groth who traveled aboard the Mavi Marmara vessel in 2010 in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Groth is no longer an member of parliament. Left Party MP Christine Buchhloz supports the "legitimate resistance" of Hamas and Hezbollah. Left Party MPs are also known to have hosted BDS activists in the Bundestag in 2014.