Anti-Jewish attack
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29-year-old Israeli attacked with irritant gas at the Nöldnerplatz S-Bahn station
A 29-year-old from Israel was attacked with irritant gas in Berlin on Friday evening and knocked to the ground. The state security determined. Anti-Semitism poisons the social climate, criticizes the German-Israeli society.
Strangers attacked a former Israeli soldier in Berlin-Rummelsburg with irritant gas. As the police announced on Saturday, the 29-year-old wore a sweater with the symbol of the Israel Defense Forces in the incident on Friday evening. According to the Berlin police, the victim is of Jewish faith and has done his military service as an Israeli citizen in the army.
As a police spokesman told rbb on Saturday, the man was on his way to the Nöldnerplatz S-Bahn station. On the forecourt he was asked about his belief by a stranger. “When he turned to the speaker and looked after him, someone sprayed irritant gas in his face so that he saw little or nothing and pushed him to the ground,” said the speaker. The victim got help in a nearby shop and called the police. Paramedics who had also been alerted took care of the man and rinsed his eyes out.
According to the information, the 29-year-old could not determine whether it was a single perpetrator or several people. The perpetrator or perpetrators fled. The police state security, responsible for politically motivated crime, has taken over the investigation into suspected politically motivated dangerous bodily harm, the police spokesman told the rbb.
“Offenders feel strengthened by being played down”
The anti-Semitism commissioner of the state of Berlin, Samuel Salzborn, announced on Saturday: “In the last few weeks we have been experiencing a social climate in which anti-Semitism is repeatedly played down and denied.” In such a climate, violent anti-Semitic criminals felt encouraged to follow up their thinking with anti-Semitic acts like on Friday. “You have to understand this connection: Whoever plays down anti-Semitism, objectively strengthens a climate of hatred, anti-Semitic hatred of Jews and Israel, whether wanted it or not.”
German-Israeli Society: “Has no place in our society”
The President of the German-Israeli Society, Uwe Becker, condemned the attack on the former Israeli soldier. “A dangerous path leads from the Star of David in the Leipzig hotel to the symbol of the Israeli Defense Forces in Berlin,” he said on Saturday in Berlin. “Anyone who is brought to anti-Semitic acts by Jewish symbols or symbols of the State of Israel and its institutions has no place in our society.”
The incident shows how much anti-Semitism related to Israel is poisoning the social climate. Becker called for an even closer look at Israel-related anti-Semitism. “As a preventive measure, children and young people must be given an objective image of Israel at school, and exchange and encounters must be encouraged,” he said.
Broadcast: Inforadio, October 9th, 2021, 11:40 a.m.