German court stops anti-Israel ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ exhibit

Organizer Walter Hermann, 76, has protested for years against Israel on Cathedral Square with his exhibit.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
A man wearing a kippah at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. (photo credit: REUTERS)
A man wearing a kippah at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A Cologne city court shut down an anti-Israel exhibit on Cathedral Square.
The prosecutor argued on Friday that the exhibit, which shows 15 pictures of dead and injured Gazan children who were allegedly hurt during Israel offensive against Hamas last summer, violates a law designed to protect children.
Andreas Hupke, the mayor of the downtown Cologne City district, from the Green Party, told the Express paper: “The agitation is completely one-sided, anti-Semitic and only disgusting.”
Organizer Walter Hermann, 76, has protested for years against Israel on Cathedral Square with his exhibit.
The official name of his protest is “Peace Demonstration,” but the exhibit has been termed the “Cologne Wailing Wall” to draw attention to Israeli policies.
The court ruled that if Hermann continues to show the photographs, he will be fined €600. The anti-Israel activist intends to appeal the ruling.
In 2010, the city partnerships of Cologne-Tel Aviv and Cologne-Bethlehem issued a joint statement blasting the long-standing anti-Israel exhibit in the bustling Cathedral Square pedestrian-only zone.
According to the resolution, “The anti-Semitic and anti-Israel presentation of the so-called ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ spreads hatred against humans and feeds anti-Israel resentments.”
Hermann’s display of an anti-Semitic cartoon in January triggered a 2010 legal complaint and a grassroots campaign from theater director Gerd Buurmann in Cologne. The cartoon showed a man sporting a Star of David on his bib as he devoured a Palestinian boy with a fork while draped in an American flag and using a knife with the word “Gaza” on it. A glass filled with blood stood next to the dinner plate.