German gunman reportedly wanted to “eliminate” Israel and other Middle East countries

The shooter who murdered ten people in the German city of Hanau was a far-right extremist who reportedly said he wanted to exterminate people from Asia, North Africa and Israel.

Germany’s umbrella Jewish organisation expressed shock over the attack, which the country’s attorney general is investigating.

Police in Hanau said the shooter, identified in news reports as Tobias R., born in 1977, and his mother were found dead in his home, not long after his reported shooting spree in two hookah bars. Among the dead were several Turkish nationals, as well as one Bosnian and one person from Poland.

The alleged shooter left behind a video and a 24-page manifesto in which he said certain peoples “must be completely destroyed,” according to German news reports. A spokesperson for the attorney general told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he could not confirm the existence of a manifesto or video, but that further information would be released.

The manifesto calls for eliminating entire countries, including Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Indian, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
“I would eliminate all these people, even if we are speaking about billions of people. It has to be done,” the manifesto said.

The attack is the latest in a string of high-profile attacks by far-right extremists in recent months. Both the Yom Kippur attack on a synagogue in Halle and the assassination of a pro-refugee politician, Walter Lübcke, were carried out by assailants affiliated with the far right.

Responding to those attacks, German officials have said they are ramping up scrutiny of far-right groups. But they are seen as playing catchup after years of focusing anti-terrorism efforts largely on Islamic extremists.

In a statement, Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany – the country’s EJC affiliate – said he worried about “the safety of minorities in Germany, and of those who are committed to helping them.”

Schuster and other prominent German Jews recently have said that an uptick in right-wing crimes and the rise of a far-right extremist political party, the Alternative for Germany, had made them consider leaving Germany.

German media said the shooter’s manifesto was intended as a “message to the German people” and a declaration of war. Their unconfirmed reports stated he blamed “certain individuals in my own country” for the fact that “we now have populations, races or cultures amongst us that are destructive in every way.”

Police did not know of any specific threats to Hanau’s Jewish population, Oliver Dainow, representative for the Jewish community of Hanau, said.

“For anybody who has these kinds of ideas in their head, Judaism is not far away,” Dainow told JTA.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who canceled travel plans in the wake of the Hanau shooting, said on Thursday in a public statement: “Racism is a poison. Hatred is a poison. And this poison exists in our society and is responsible for far too many crimes.”

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