Germany’s interior minister denounced pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Berlin Saturday, who chanted antisemitic slogans, attacked police officers and harassed journalists.
Protesters at pro-Palestinian rallies in Berlin, Hanover and Dortmund over the weekend voiced antisemitic slurs and anti-Israel slogans, describing Israel as an “apartheid” regime, advocating violence against the Jewish state, and chanting “free, free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
More videos emerged showing participants shouting slogans like “Scheiß Jude!” (“shitty Jew”) and “strike, oh Qassam, don’t let the Zionists sleep” — referring to a rocket type developed by the Hamas terror group and fired at Israeli civilian targets.
The watchdog group StopAntisemitism tweeted about the hatred stating “Once again we see how antisemitism and anti-Zionism go hand in hand.”
📍Berlin, Germany: pro-Palestinian rally goers caught on film screaming “dirty Jews”
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 24, 2022
Once again we see how antisemitism and anti-Zionism go hand in hand. pic.twitter.com/kgcYGxpj8O
Incidents of hostile outrages towards journalists at the demonstrations were also reported, prompting police intervention. One of the journalists, Peter Wilke of the German daily Bild, was escorted by police officers out of the protest after being circled by a group of participants screaming: “Du Jude! Dreckiger Jude! Drecksjude” (“dirty Jew”).
“Journalists are kicked and insulted in an antisemitic manner by a mob of Jew-and-Israel haters in the middle of our capital,” Wilke tweeted. “We have come this far. But even these people will not win with their hatred.”
In Berlin alone, at least 750 marched through the streets of the capital, according to the local police.
Jörg Reichel — regional manager of the German Journalists’ Union, who was at the Berlin demonstration — attested that several reporters were physically attacked, punched, threatened, and harassed by participants.
During the Berlin rally, which was secured by 160 police officers, stones were thrown at several police officers and firecrackers were set off. Berlin police said Sunday that it initiated criminal investigations for serious violation of the public peace, dangerous bodily harm, and incitement to hatred, among other charges. Two suspects were arrested immediately and investigations into other suspects are ongoing, the police said in the statement.
Commenting on the demonstrations, Samuel Salzborn, Berlin’s antisemitism officer, stated that “antisemitic terror against Israel was backed up with anti-Israel slogans, while at the same time the hatred is directed against all Jews.”
“The core of these assemblies is antisemitism – nothing else,” Salzborn asserted.
Berlin’s Senator of the Interior, Iris Spranger, announced that criminal offenses will be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
“My position is crystal clear: As a society, we must take a clear and unified stand against antisemitism and hatred,” Spranger tweeted.