Ambassador to Germany slams al-Quds day protest in Berlin
Some 700 people attended the al-Quds march in the German capital.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALUpdated: JULY 12, 2015 13:20Pro-Israel rally against al-Quds day in Berlin, July 11, 2015.(photo credit: CAROLA BASELER)
Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, Israel’s ambassador, blasted Saturday’s annual pro- Iran regime al-Quds Day march in the German capital.“It is a disgrace that in Germany a march full of hate, agitation and anti-Semitism can take place,” the diplomat said.Hadas-Handelsman spoke in front of a pro-Israel crowd of 250 in the heart of Berlin’s bustling downtown shopping district.International Quds Day – initiated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founder, in 1979 – is an annual event calling to destroy the Jewish state.Iran’s regime seeks to purge Christians and Jews from Jerusalem, the ambassador said.Addressing the talks unfolding in neighboring Austria in an effort to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Hadas-Handelsman said the prospective “agreement is a danger for Israel and the world. The agreement is not enough to stop Iran from going nuclear.”Some 700 people attended the al-Quds march, a police official told The Jerusalem Post. German media outlets reported participants screamed “Child murderer Israel.”Some observers said that the slogan “Child murderer Israel” was not yelled.The authorities appeared to have banned the slogan “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig” at this year’s march.The pro-Israel demonstrators waved Israeli flags and held signs calling for a ban of Hezbollah. Local politicians from the Green Party, the Left Party, Social Democrats and Christian Democratic Union were present.
Joel Ziv, 17, told the Post that it good that many Jews were at the counterprotest. He added, however, that it is better he not wear his Star of David necklace, because of an anti-Jewish aggression in the city.In Vienna, about 700 anti-Israeli protesters attended a similar event, as well as 150 pro-Israel counterprotesters, Samuel Laster, the editor-in-chief of the online news outlet Die Jüdische (The Jewish) based in the Austrian capital, told the Post.An “pro-Iran imam spoke about overcoming, that is the obliteration, of the Zionist regime," on Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. The al-Quds supporters called the US “the center of genocide.”Laster said he plans to file a criminal complaint alleging a violation of Austria’s hate laws.