The “vigil” scheduled for Wednesday evening, which was organized by the “Palestine Solidarity Austria” platform, among others, is prohibited. State Police Vice President Franz Eigner announced this on Wednesday afternoon. The reason is “security concerns,” he explained in a background conversation.
As the “Krone” learned in advance, foreign authorities in particular had raised security concerns. It is possible that people who sympathize with Hamas’ bloody terrorist attacks on Israel would appear at this event. It was therefore decided to ban the event. “Don’t bring the conflict onto the streets of Vienna.” This step is “permissible and necessary,” said police chief Gerhard Pürstl at a short-term press conference at the Vienna State Police Directorate. It was necessary to proceed in this direction in order to prevent “the violent conflict in the Middle East from being carried onto the streets of Vienna,” said Pürstl. Pürstl referred to the latest intelligence findings, according to which the event, which was originally registered as a vigil, turned into “clear “Calls for violence” could have resulted in the state of Israel. In advance, invitations to the vigil had been distributed on the Internet using codes used by Hamas that endorsed or propagated a free Palestine and the complete annihilation of the Land of Israel. The organizer of the rally did not distance itself from it, which is why after “very careful consideration” they decided not to let the event take place. “No justification for terrorism” The Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) invited people to a memorial event on Vienna’s Ballhausplatz on Wednesday evening. Under the motto “#standwithisrael” they want to commemorate those murdered in the course of Hamas terror and pray for the rapid and complete recovery of the injured and the safe return of those abducted, the IKG said in a broadcast on Tuesday. “There is no justification for terrorism. Hundreds of civilians were attacked in their homes. Many kidnapped, even more murdered in cold blood. Corpses have been and are being desecrated,” emphasized IKG President Oskar Deutsch. “The barbarism of these Islamists is limitless.” Everyone who placed the value of life above that of death is cordially invited to take part. “Let’s send a strong sign of life and hope to the world.Palestinian demonstration as a counter-eventThe “Vigil in Solidarity with Palestine” should have taken place at the same time at Stephansplatz. Last weekend there were already several spontaneous rallies in downtown Vienna -Palestinian activists. According to the Vienna police, these were peaceful, but were “observed and evaluated by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, especially those that address the current attacks in Israel”: “The possibility of free expression and thus also the right of assembly is a high constitutional good and is allowed only be restricted in cases that are precisely regulated by law.”
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