The Israeli embassy in Berlin demanded on Thursday that the political leadership in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg pull the plug on its funding of the antisemitic Bethlehem-based ‘Palestinian’ pastor Mitri Raheb because he supported the October 7 massacre of over 1,200 people, including German nationals.
“We view the actions and statements of Pastor Raheb with the utmost severity. Following this information, the Consulate in Munich reached out to Baden-Württemberg, including senior officials in the state administration, to inform them of Pastor Raheb’s publications, statements, and positions, along with our strongest condemnation and a demand to cease all engagement with him immediately,” Israel’s embassy told Channel 14 exclusively on Thursday.
Raheb, who serves as president of Dar al-Kalima University and is a board member of the support association Bethlehem-Akademie – Dar al-Kalima e., wrote on X on 10/7: “The desire for freedom is stronger than the settler colonial state. The ‘Palestinians’ keep showing new forms of creative resistance & resilience. Our heart goes to our people in Gaza & especially our staff & students there. Your prayers, advocacy, & support now are much appreciated.”
4+Three days later, Raheb again justified the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust in a second X Post: “Occupation will keep triggering resistance. No one can relinquish people’s quest for freedom. Without justice there will be no peace. It is high time to decolonize ‘Palestine’ so that our people can live in dignity and reach the potential that God has for them.”
The U.S.-based Christians United for Israel (CUFI) – a supporter of Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria and the security of the Jewish state — also expressed outrage about Raheb. John Hagee, founder and Chairman of Christians United for Israel, told Channel 14 that “Any entity that funds Raheb’s Jew hatred is complicit in the same. That there are German public and charitable funds being provided to Raheb is an absolute stain on all associated; Germany knows better.” David Klein, a Swiss Jewish journalist who has previously reported on Raheb’s antisemitism in Switzerland for the outlet Audiatur-Online, highlighted Raheb’s X Post praising the Hamas massacre on 10/7
4+Hagee added that “Mr. Raheb’s theological framework is many things, but it is not Christian. One cannot be a follower of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, while simultaneously hating that which God loves, including and especially the Children of Israel. Mr. Raheb and all who wrap their Jew hatred in the banner of Christianity defile both its message and the Messenger.” Channel 14 sent multiple press queries to Raheb.
It is unclear how much money the state of Baden-Württemberg provides to Raheb, the university, and his affiliated organizations. The Green Party and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) coalition government run by Cem Özdemir, a Green Party politician of Turkish origin, refused to answer numerous Channel 14 press queries.
In 2017, the former Green Party president of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, who at one time embraced the murderous philosophy of Maoism, personally delivered i a check for €30,000 ($32,000) to Raheb. Despite the state government’s public declaration of “No Place for Antisemitism” on its website and its condemnation of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign in the new CDU-Green coalition agreement, the Green Party-led government continues to fund hardcore antisemitism, according to its critics.
4+According to the state’s agreement between the CDU and the Green Party, cooperation with “our partners on the ground in the Bethlehem area in the ‘Palestinian’ territories” will continue. This refers to Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. Its president is Raheb. Documented for years. On the website of the support association Bethlehem-Akademie – Dar al-Kalima e. V., dated 4 February 2026, it states: “To deepen and expand cooperation in the field of dual education, the head of the ‘International Cooperation Projects’ unit of the ZSL Baden-Württemberg visited Dar al-Kalima University today.” Mitri Raheb is a board member of the support association Bethlehem-Akademie – Dar al-Kalima e. V., which has been criticized as anti-Israel.The press spokesperson of the support association Bethlehem-Akademie – Dar al-Kalima e. V., Christiane Wacker, did not respond to a Channel 14 press query.
Raheb, who studied in Germany, advocates boycott measures against Israel and an extremist form of Christian liberation theology that seeks to deny Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Writing for Berlin daily BZ in 2012, the popular columnist Gunnar Schupelius slammed Raheb’s hostility to Israel. Based on his meeting with Raheb in Bethlehem, Schupelius observed how he met a pastor who delivered a “one-hour tirade against Israel.” His “wild look and tone could not be separated from hate. His words corresponded to half-truths or no truths at all.”
4+Schupelius wrote that Raheb “compared Israel’s security wall between Israel and West Jordan with the Berlin Wall. He did not mention that many children, women, and men were murdered in Israel before the wall was built.” He continued that Raheb “compared Israel with the racist state of South Africa during the time of apartheid.”Schupelius wrote, “No, this pastor does not belong to those who work with Israel for peace.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Channel 14 that Cem Özdemir and interior minister Manuel Hagel need “to take action now and stop being bean counters.” Cooper said the time” for sympathetic words is over.” He noted Raheb “celebrated the mass murder of Jews” and that his actions will embolden “other antisemites to celebrate the mass murder of Jews because nothing will happen to them.”
The city of Stuttgart and its controversial mayor Frank Nopper (CDU) provide a link on its city website that promotes a demonstration by the ‘Palestine’ Committee Stuttgart against Israel on 10/7 in the heart of Stuttgart. The antisemitic group called it a protest “against the day of genocide.” Nopper and the anti-Israel civil servant Michael Blume, who is tasked with fighting antisemitism in the state, have been under intense fire for enabling the pro-Hamas group to raise funds on the city’s website and protest on 10/7. The governor of the state, Özdemir, has refused to designate the ‘Palestine’ Committee Stuttgart a terrorist organization.
Two German courts in Hamburg ruled that Blume can be termed antisemitic. Israel’s government previously criticized Blume. Tal Heinrich, former Israeli government spokeswoman, sharply criticized Blume in 2024, stating, “One of the very first statements of the PM in the beginning of the war – right after October 7 – underscored that this is a time for moral clarity. Comments that we have seen from Mr. Blume in the past about the Israeli-‘Palestinian’ conflict and throughout this war demonstrate that he often lacks moral clarity.” The high tolerance for pro-Hamas, pro-Iranian regime, pro-Hamas antisemitic activities by Blume and the political leadership in Baden-Württemberg, according to critics, has led the state to turn a blind eye to solutions to rope in the unfolding lethal antisemitism and jihadism.
Video: social media via ‘Russia Today’ X page
While the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Baden-Württemberg (domestic intelligence agency) has designated the ‘Palestine’ Committee Stuttgart as an organization with “secular pro-‘Palestinian’ extremist endeavors,” Governor Özdemir declined to ban the pro-Hamas entity. The intelligence agency added in its report: “The monitoring mandate for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution arises from the activities of the endeavors and their members, which are directed against the idea of international understanding and the peaceful coexistence of peoples. In addition, they endanger Germany’s foreign interests.” There are precedents of other German states banning antisemitic pro-‘Palestinian’ organizations. On August 18, the Hessian Ministry of the Interior outlawed the antisemitic association ‘Palästina’ e. V.
According to the Hessian announcement on the ban of Palästina e. V., the organization’s purpose is directed “against the constitutional order and against the idea of international understanding.”
Hesse’s Interior Minister Roman Poseck said: “With the ban of the association ‘Palästina e. V.,’ Hesse is sending a clear signal for the resolute action of the rule of law and against the rise of antisemitism.”The criteria that led to the ban of ‘Palästina’ e. V. would also justify a ban of the ‘Palestine’ Committee Stuttgart. A ban of the ‘Palestine’ Committee Stuttgart is only a question of political will.
German Jews in Baden-Württemberg and across Germany have urged the state to fire Blume because of his verbal attack on German Jews, Israel, and his role in stoking antisemitism.
After Blume blamed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for causing the increase in antisemitism in Europe and Germany because the Prime Minister was leading a self-defense war against Hamas and other pro-Iranian regime movements, Roman Haller, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Munich and is the former director of the Jewish Claims Conference, published an open letter to Commissioner Blume: “Your recent statement regarding the attribution of antisemitism is outrageous and leaves me speechless as a Holocaust survivor who is used to some things. Your statement not only counteracts the constant assurances of the State of Israel’s right to defend itself, but also encourages the very people against whom you — especially as an antisemitism commissioner — should fight. Because what you are saying is pure antisemitism.”
4+Haller wrote that Blume was in fact embracing a frequently used antisemitic accusation by implying that Jews have only themselves to blame. “With your statements, you are not only depriving Israel of the right to defend itself, but you are also pandering to those who want to wipe out Israel. I expect a clear apology from you. However, if you stick with your unspeakable accusations, you will be unacceptable [as part of] the fight against antisemitism.”
Baden-Württemberg is also the only German state that allows a city partnership with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The university city of Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg retains its twin city partnership with the Iranian regime in Isfahan. The largely anti-Israel mayor of Freiburg, Martin Horn, has refused to sever ties with the regime in Isfahan. Isfahan is one of the principal locations from which rockets were fired into Israel. Iranian dissidents and German Jews have urged Freiburg to end its partnership with the regime in Iran.