At various events on Sunday, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on all citizens in Germany to protect Jewish life in the country. This protection is a state responsibility, “but it is also a civic duty,” said Steinmeier in front of thousands of people at a rally against anti-Semitism and for solidarity with Israel at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. “I really ask everyone in our country to accept this civic duty.” According to the police, around 10,000 people took part in the rally, according to the organizers there were around 25,000. Scholz spoke at the opening of a newly built synagogue in Dessau.
In view of the anti-Semitic riots of the past few days, Steinmeier called it “unbearable that Jews are afraid again today – in this country of all places.” It is unbearable that Jewish parents no longer send their children to school and that the Berlin Holocaust Memorial has to be protected by the police. “Everyone who lives here must know Auschwitz and understand the responsibility that this creates for our country,” said Steinmeier. “Let us show that we can and want to live together peacefully,” he demanded, appealing to all population groups in Germany.
Relatives of four German Hamas hostages on stage
The police had cordoned off a large area of the two-kilometer-long section between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column with a massive presence. Before the start of the rally, despite a ban on demonstrations, several groups with the insignia of the pro-Palestine movement gathered at Potsdamer Platz; They formed a kind of line that visitors to the pro-Israel demonstration had to pass. Later there were clashes with the police there.
At the Brandenburg Gate, the focus of the organizers and visitors was more on communication, speaking and listening. This became particularly clear when the relatives of four German Hamas hostages were welcomed on stage. Roni Roman reported how her sister Yarden Roman-Gat, her husband and their small child were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri. While the husband and child were able to hide, Yarden Roman-Gat was kidnapped to Gaza. Her sister asked the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” together, as it is her birthday this Sunday. Yoni Asher described his helplessness as he watched on social media as his wife Doron and their two young daughters were abducted. “Our love will be stronger,” he said, “you will return to my arms.”
Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor announced: “We must now eliminate the entire infrastructure of terror in the Gaza Strip – and when we do that, I really don’t want to hear any more ‘yes, buts’.” Prosor said: “This time we have to go to the end.” The initiator of the demonstration and chairman of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck, spoke similarly: “We are standing here because we want to show solidarity with Israel and its people.” Jerusalem doesn’t need any “smart-guy advice from Berlin,” Beck said, and received great support from the crowd: “Israel has the right to self-defense.”
On Sunday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a speech at the inauguration of the newly built synagogue in Dessau.
(Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/AP)
There were also pro-Palestinian demonstrations again
On the occasion of the opening of the newly built synagogue in Dessau-Roßlau on Sunday, Chancellor Scholz (SPD) called for the protection and defense of Jewish life. “Now we have to show what our ‘never again’ means,” said Scholz. 85 years after its destruction by the National Socialists, the city in Saxony-Anhalt once again has a Jewish place of worship. “What a gift, what happiness,” he said. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) called the synagogue a symbol of new beginnings: “But we also have to remember the past and face it again and again.”
At the weekend, thousands of people came together again in several German cities for pro-Palestinian demonstrations. According to police, around 6,900 people gathered in Düsseldorf for a protest march under the motto “Condemnation of war crimes against the civilian population in Gaza.” According to the police, up to 3,500 people came together in Berlin. According to the police in Neukölln, after the demonstration ended, there were again unauthorized gatherings and pyrotechnics were burned down in isolated cases. There were also demonstrations in Frankfurt am Main, Hanover and Cologne. The events remained largely peaceful.