A faction within Germany's Left Party has been criticized for posting a comic of a grim reaper holding a bloody scythe painted to resemble the flag of Israel. The group was commenting on the Venezuelan political crisis.
Image: Facebook/BAK Shalom der Linksjugend Solid
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A far-left faction within Germany's socialist Left Party has retracted a cartoon insinuating that Israel was instigating a violent coup in Venezuela after party members accused it of anti-Semitism.
The Cuba Si Hessen group posted the image on Facebook on Wednesday. It shows a grim reaper cloaked in a United States flag and holding a bloody scythe painted to resemble the flag of Israel.
The figure knocks at a door titled "Venezuela." Blood spills out of other opened doors marked "Iraq," "Libya," "Syria" and "Ukraine."
The group captioned the image with: "We stand on the side of the legitimate Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and oppose any form of intervention. Yankee go home!"
The image used "anti-Semitic references" to side with "crude anti-Americanists" in its interpretation of the political crisis in Venezuela, it said.
Germany's major political parties — What you need to know
There are seven political parties in the German Bundestag and they rarely agree on anything. DW takes a look at their ideologies, leadership and history.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Schmidt
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
The CDU has traditionally been the main center-right party across Germany, but it shifted toward the center under Chancellor Angela Merkel. The party remains more fiscally and socially conservative compared to parties on the left. It supports membership of the EU and NATO, budgetary discipline at home and abroad and generally likes the status quo. It is the largest party in the Bundestag.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Schmidt
Christian Social Union (CSU)
The CSU is the sister party of the CDU in Bavaria and the two act symbiotically at the national level (CDU/CSU). Despite their similarities, the CSU is generally more conservative than the CDU on social issues. The CSU leader and premier of Bavaria, Markus Söder, ordered crosses in every state building in 2018.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Schuldt
Social Democrats (SPD)
The SPD is Germany's oldest political party and the main center-left rival of the CDU/CSU. It shares the CDU/CSU support for the EU and NATO, but it takes a more progressive stance on social issues and welfare policies. It is currently in a coalition government with the CDU/CSU and is trying to win back support under interim leaders Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Manuela Schwesig and Malu Dreyer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kumm
Alternative for Germany (AfD)
The new kid on the block is the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. The far-right party was founded in 2013 and entered the Bundestag for the first time in 2017 under the stewardship of Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland. It is largely united by opposition to Merkel's immigration policy, euroscepticism, and belief in the alleged dangers posed by Germany's Muslim population.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Deck
Free Democrats (FDP)
The FDP has traditionally been the kingmaker of German politics. Although it has never received more than 15 percent of the vote, it has formed multiple coalition governments with both the CDU/CSU and SPD. The FDP, today led by Christian Lindner, supports less government spending and lower taxes, but takes a progressive stance on social issues such as gay marriage or religion.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kumm
The Greens
The Greens, led today by Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, emerged from the environmental movement in the 1980s. Unsuprisingly, it supports efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment. It is also progressive on social issues. But strong divisions have occasionally emerged on other topics. The party famously split in the late 1990s over whether to use military force in Kosovo.
Image: picture-alliance/Eventpress Rekdal
The Left
The Left, led by Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger, is the most left-wing party in the Bundestag. It supports major redistribution of wealth at home and a pacifist stance abroad, including withdrawing Germany from NATO. It emerged from the successor party to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ruled communist East Germany until 1989. Today, it still enjoys most of its support in eastern Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Gambarini
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Hours later, Cuba Si Hessen apologized in a follow-up Facebook post.
"We didn't notice the Star of David," the group said. "We had intended to criticize the roll of the United States in the undemocratic coup currently being instigated by the right-wing opposition in Venezuela." Israel, it added, "had nothing to do with the coup."
The head of the Left Party in the central state of Hessen criticized Cuba Si Hessen in comments to Die Welt newspaper.
"The cartoon is not a suitable way of criticizing the role of the United States in the current situation in Venezuela," Petra Heimer said.
Venezuela's political crisis erupted after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president on Wednesday. The United States and most Latin American countries quickly recognized the declaration, while Russia, China and Turkey voiced support for socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
In 2011, activists in the western city of Duisburg handed out flyers critical of Israel that included a Star of David merged with the Nazi swastika.
In the same year, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said "the old anti-Zionist spirit of East Germany is still haunting the party."
"Paradoxically, it is mainly representatives from western Germany who today act out an almost pathological, blind hatred of Israel."
