Berlin
Pro-Palestine demonstration escalates: “The situation in North Neukölln is tense”
Fire on the street: The pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin-Neukölln gets out of control
© DTS news agency / Imago Images
Heated mood in Berlin-Neukölln: People defy a ban and gather for a pro-Palestinian rally. Riots follow, there are injuries, the police take action.
Despite a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, there were again crowds of people and hours-long clashes in Berlin-Neukölln on Wednesday evening. The police spoke of a heated atmosphere on Sonnenallee, which only gradually calmed down very late in the evening. Stones and bottles were thrown at police officers and pyrotechnics were set off, as the authority announced on the platform X, formerly Twitter. According to a police spokesman, several officers were injured.
“Bystanders” and “people who resisted” also suffered injuries. According to police, several cars and a truck burned in a residential area and a tree caught fire. Pepper spray and “force” were used to arrest suspects.
The police had previously reported that there was a shooting on Sonnenallee in the evening Neukölln There continued to be “large gatherings of people” in which administrative offenses and criminal offenses were committed. Objects were randomly thrown onto the street and set on fire.
Police in Berlin take action against heated atmosphere
“The situation in North Neukölln is tense,” said Berlin Police Chief Barbara Slowik in the RBB Abendschau early in the evening. There are definitely several hundred people on the streets in Sonnenallee. “Tonight we can expect that smaller and larger groups will be out on the streets, chanting and perhaps committing crimes,” said Slowik. The police are using water cannons to extinguish burning obstacles such as garbage cans or tires on the streets. “We are clearly taking action,” emphasized the police chief.
The police told X that many demonstrators were not complying with the officers’ requests. There is resistance to arresting suspects, so the emergency services have to “use immediate force”. The demonstrators were clearly participants in a replacement event for a pro-Palestinian rally, which was also banned. In addition to Sonnenallee, according to the spokesman, Reuterstrasse, Donaustrasse and Hermannplatz were the scenes of the previously banned demonstration.
A dpa reporter spoke of an aggressive mood and dozens of arrests in the evening. According to him, people mainly chanted “Free free Palestinian” and “Viva viva palestina”.
“We need quick proceedings against rioters”
The chairman of the police union (GdP), Jochen Kopelke, has called for consistent action in connection with such riots. “We need quick trials and verdicts against the rioters,” Kopelke told the editorial network Germany (RND) on Wednesday. He spoke of an “absolutely disgusting atmosphere in Germany” and also referred, among other things, to the attempted arson attack on a Jewish community in Berlin on Wednesday night.
According to police, several hundred people also gathered at the Foreign Office. According to the police, the gathering against violence in the Middle East was ended directly by the organizer because she had no influence on the participants. 50 participants were registered. Several hundred came.
Anger after rocket hits clinic in Gaza
After the attempted arson attack on the synagogue on Berlin’s Brunnenstrasse on Wednesday night, around 50 people came to a vigil against anti-Semitism organized by neighbors. “Since we live in this neighborhood ourselves, we feel an urgent obligation to resolutely oppose the anti-Semitic motivated failed arson attack of this morning and anti-Semitism in general,” said the meeting leader Sonja Kloevekorn of the German Press Agency.
A rocket strike at the Al-Ahli Clinic in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, potentially killing hundreds, sparked widespread anger, particularly in Arab and Islamic countries. There were anti-Israel demonstrations there and also in Germany. On Tuesday evening, the Hamas-controlled health authority immediately blamed Israel for the rocket strike, and neighboring Arab states followed suit. Israel firmly rejected this and spoke of the impact of a stray rocket from the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad. According to its “current assessment,” the US government also does not consider Israel to be responsible.
It was only on Wednesday night that riots broke out at pro-Palestinian rallies in Berlin, especially in Neukölln. It was said that 20 police officers were injured. Two would have had to quit the service. According to the police, 39 people were arrested and 65 criminal cases were initiated. In addition, 12 administrative offenses were registered.
There were also pro-Palestinian protests in other German cities, including Frankfurt and Nuremberg. A water cannon was also used in Frankfurt. According to the police headquarters in Middle Franconia, up to 500 people gathered in Nuremberg. A poster was seized and its contents were being examined, the police said.