German police arrest author over tweets criticising Netanyahu

A German author and politician has been arrested after social media posts comparing Benjamin Netanyahu to the Nazis.

Jürgen Todenhöfer, a former parliamentarian for the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, was detained by Munich police and had his devices seized.

The 84-year-old, who in 2020 left the CDU to found The Justice Party, wrote on X: “Mister Netanyahu, does your conscience never actually protest when you do to Palestinians the same thing that the cursed Nazis did to the Jews?”

Mr Todenhöfer said police confiscated his phones and digital devices after monitoring his apartment for weeks.

Though the police have not commented on the arrest, Germany prohibits relativising or trivialising the Holocaust under anti-incitement laws.

Mr Todenhöfer has been a longstanding critic of Western intervention in the Middle East.

His new party has never won any seats but he is an outspoken critic of Germany’s support for Israel, and has written multiple books about the Islamic State, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The author says he was also investigated by police for accusing Olaf Scholz, the former chancellor, of treason for supposedly allowing the bombing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia.

‘Thought police’

“Is there a ‘thought police’ in Germany again?” Mr Todenhöfer said after his arrest.

“If a prison sentence comes out of this investigation, it will be an honor for me to serve it. Because standing up for peace and freedom in Palestine is our duty,” he said.

“It cannot be that Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is warmly invited to Germany by the chancellor, while his critics are threatened with prison, house searches and confiscation” he continued.

The author, who denies that he committed incitement, pointed to a passage in his book “And if No One Follows You, Go Alone”, saying: “There is nothing to relativise about the Holocaust. It is and remains the greatest crime in German history.”

In a report earlier this week, the United Nations urged Germany to “stop criminalising, punishing and suppressing legitimate Palestinian solidarity activism”.

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