70-year-old Jewish man in Berlin assaulted in violent antisemitic attack
The mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, has faced intense criticism for his lax attitude toward rising antisemitism in Germany’s capital.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALPeople wear kippas as they attend a demonstration in front of a Jewish synagogue, to denounce an anti-Semitic attack on a young man wearing a kippa in the capital earlier this month, in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2018.(photo credit: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS)
Berlin’s police department said a man assaulted a 70-year-old Jewish man on Tuesday in the district of Pankow. The police notice defined the attack as “Man antisemitically insulted.” The 70-year-old man was walking in the neighborhood of Pankow when an unknown assailant insulted him with antisemitic language. As the elderly man defended himself verbally, the assailant punched him, causing injuries to his head and chin. The attempts by the Jewish man to blunt the blows caused him to lose his footing and he fell to the ground. A bystander ran toward the two men, prompting the assailant to flee. The latest outbreak of antisemitism comes on the heels of the city’s prosecutors pulling the plug on an investigation into an antisemitic attack on Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, president of the city’s Chabad community. Assailants allegedly spat on the rabbi after he left synagogue services in July. The mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, has faced intense criticism for his lax attitude toward rising antisemitism in Germany’s capital. Berlin’s best-selling paper Bild said last week that Müller has helped “make antisemitism socially respectable” because he welcomed Iran’s antisemitic mayor to the capital.The Jerusalem Post reported in September that Müller met Tehran’s mayor Pirouz Hanachi, who participated in a rally in his city calling for Israel’s destruction.
Stephan Grigat, academic director of the organization Stop the Bomb – which seeks to end the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program – blasted Müller at the time for meeting with “Hanachi and the ambassador of the antisemitic Iranian terror regime in the Red City Hall.” Müller has declined to take legal action against the Iranian regime-sponsored antisemitic Al-Quds march, which takes place each year in Berlin. Berlin’s city government permits 250 Hezbollah members and supporters to operate in the capital, according to the city's intelligence agency. Müller’s administration says that the legal hurdle is too high to ban the Al-Quds march, but observers say that is an excuse for not wanting to shut the march down. Müller has not tested the law to stop the Al-Quds rally.
