Police search for Berlin attacker who attempted to set ablaze a pro-Israel activist
Berlin security forces are searching after an assailant who allegedly tried to burn a pro-Israeli activist by setting an Israel flag she was carrying on fire.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALUpdated: MAY 2, 2017 21:45Demonstrators burn an Israeli national flag during an anti-Israel protest(photo credit: REUTERS)
Berlin police forces are currently searching after a man who attempted to set an Israel flag ablaze on Monday during a Memorial Day event commemorating Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. The woman who was holding the flag and very nearly escaped the attack is a German-Israeli pro-Israel activist.The latter, who wishes not reveal her identity because she wants to continue freely with her pro-Israel activism, contacted the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday and said that she filed a criminal complaint. She asserted that the assailant sought to cause her "dangerous bodily harm."The alleged assault took place at a German-Israeli friendship youth event on Paris Square in the heart of Berlin. According to the official complaint, the woman carried an Israeli flag on her shoulder and the perpetrator attempted to use a lighter to set the flag on fire. A 22-year-old witness stopped the attack and the assailant fled.The alleged attack comes on the heels of last week's independent German report commissioned by the Federal government that shows that 40% of Germans hold modern antisemitic views (the loathing of the Jewish state).There has been a series of attacks on Israelis over the years in Berlin, including the murder of Dalia Elyakim, who was killed by an Islamic State terrorist attack at a Christmas market in December.In 2015, German Muslims attacked Shahak Shapira, an Israeli living in Berlin, because he told the men to stop chanting anti-Jewish songs.Six Palestinians attacked Israelis in Berlin in 2014.Across Germany in 2014 during Israel's Protective Edge Operation which aimed to stop Hamas rocket fire, a wave of anti-Israel antisemitism unfolded.In the cities of Dortmund and Frankfurt chants proclaiming “Hamas Hamas Juden ins gas!” (“Hamas Hamas Jews to the gas!”) were heard and in Essen demonstrators chanted “Scheiss Juden!” (“Jewish sh...t”).Anti-Israeli activists, most of whom are German Muslims and hard-leftists , have sought to destroy Israeli flags at demonstrations over the years.
Police forces in German cities have ignored or enabled protestors to act for the removal and/or the outlawing of Israeli flags. In 2015, German security guards remove an Israeli flag at a Berlin soccer match to preempt Palestinian anger. In 2009, during an anti-Israeli demonstration organized by the Turkish Islamic group, Millî Görüş, and attended by 10,000 protesters, two police officers stormed the apartment of a pro-Israel activist and seized Israeli flags hanging on the balcony and inside a window. The Duisburg police chief justified the removal of the flags as an act intended to “prevent an escalation.” Prior to the storming of the apartment, Islamists pelted the flags with objects.Pro-Israeli activists, including one with a flag, were taken into police custody in the city of Düsseldorf during Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. The raw anger of members of the “Mainz initiative for peace in Gaza” compelled five young men holding an Israeli flag to flee into a department store in the city of Mainz.
