Sunday May 16, 2021
After demos on Saturday
Jewish officials appalled by slogans
On Saturday demonstrations on the Middle East conflict lead to riots. Almost 100 police officers are injured in Berlin-Neukölln. What hurts the Jews in Germany are slogans that can be heard. Two important people in the Jewish community in Germany are appalled.
The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, and the Chairman of the Jewish Community in Berlin, Gideon Joffe, expressed their horror at the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli slogans that were heard at rallies on Saturday, among others. “For days, mobs have been spreading sheer hatred of Jews in many German cities. They chant the worst slogans against Jews, which remind us of the darkest times in German history,” explained Schuster. The police must act against it consistently. “Anti-Semitism must not be spread under the guise of freedom of assembly.”
The chairman of the Jewish community in Berlin, Gideon Joffe, stated that an attempt had been made on Saturday to “destroy 75 years of commemorative work and reasons of state in Germany”. This was unsuccessful, said Joffe. In the future, however, new forms of defense against anti-Semitism would have to be developed.
In the past few days there had been attacks on synagogues and other anti-Semitic incidents in several German cities. Thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday to show their solidarity with the Palestinians. While numerous demonstrations and expressions of solidarity took place without major incidents and in a peaceful mood, the situation in several locations was highly emotional according to the police.
93 police officers injured, 59 arrests
In the pro-Palestinian demonstration on and around Sonnenallee in Berlin-Neukölln, 93 police officers were injured on Saturday. As the Berlin police announced, a total of 59 people were arrested – among other things for serious breach of the peace, dangerous bodily harm, assaults on law enforcement officers and the release of prisoners. Another 150 people were identified and reported.
From the demonstration in Neukölln, anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli cries such as “child murderer Israel” or “woman murderer Israel” were shouted. According to a report by the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism, which observes the radical Islamic scene, the demonstrators are said to have included supporters of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gray Wolves. In their slogans, some of which were chanted in Arabic, they had called for the bombing of Tel Aviv, the “intifada to victory” and the “reconquest of” Palestine “from the Jordan to the Mediterranean”. According to the police, anti-Israel slogans were documented and in some cases immediately translated. The state security is now checking for their criminal liability.
Central Council of Muslims reacts
Politicians and representatives of religious communities sharply condemned the attacks and the anti-Jewish slogans. Aiman Mazyek, the chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, condemned the recent violence against synagogues. “Anyone who attacks synagogues and Jews on the pretext of criticizing Israel has forfeited any right to solidarity,” he said in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. He firmly condemns the “disgusting attacks on our Jewish fellow citizens” in recent days.
Mazyek also shared posts on Twitter aimed at counteracting polarization. For example, he retweeted a contribution to a sit-in of over one hundred Jews and Arabs in the Negev desert who gathered in the desert with the message “We refuse to be enemies”.
.