Status: 09.10.2023, 17:04 PM
CommentsShare
About 50 people gathered in Berlin's Neukölln district on Saturday evening for a pro-Palestinian demonstration. © Paul Zinken/dpa
At a demonstration in Berlin's Neukölln district over the weekend, the pro-Palestinian network Samidoun celebrated the attack on Israel. How can that be?
Berlin - Hassan is standing in the entrance of a mobile phone shop on Sonnenallee. A young man, airpods in his ears. Did he notice anything about the demonstration at which the attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas was cheered a few meters down the street on Saturday? "Yes, of course, I was there," says the young man. "So that everyone knows that we stand behind our country." For him, our country is Palestine.
For many, this jubilant celebration of about 50 or 60 people in Berlin's Neukölln district on the day of the attack on Israel has caused horror. The anti-Israel network Samidoun distributed sweet pastries "to celebrate the victory of the resistance," as it said on Instagram. Slogans were chanted, a stone was thrown at a police car. And all this while Hamas terrorists in Israel kidnapped dozens of civilians and killed hundreds. How can that be?
Silence on Sonnenallee
Almost no one wants to go over it in the morning on Sonnenallee. Kebab stalls and baklava bakeries offer their wares for sale, most people don't want to hear about the bloody Middle East conflict. But on some of the walls of the houses there are posters: "Freedom for Palestine". Several Palestinian flags hang in front of a shop. But no one wants to answer questions. "We're not interested," says one young man.
Only Hassan dares to come out of the shadows, he knocks out one blatant thesis after the other. Just "because three Israelis died" the Palestinians are now suddenly terrorists - the 18-year-old is serious. He doesn't want to hear about hundreds of deaths or atrocities against civilians. He counters everything with the argument that no one talks about what Israel has already done. "Why did they come to Palestine and take our land?"
He has no problem with Jews, claims the student, whose family fled from the Palestinian territories to Syria, from there to Lebanon and finally to Germany. But the fight against the people of Israel will go on and on, even 200 or 300 years, until "we take Palestine back in this way."
Israel's right to exist is Germany's raison d'être
It's not just Hassan who thinks this way. And it is causing unrest in a country that has elevated Israel's right to exist to a reason of state. That Israel has a right to live and to defend itself is the least, the lowest common denominator, which no one here should shake. Not after the historical crimes committed by Germans against Jews, many of whom found refuge in Palestine. There is no turning back from this after the Holocaust, that is the German line.
"We do not accept it when the heinous attacks against Israel are celebrated here on our streets," said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after Saturday's scenes. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser brought up expulsions if hatred and incitement are spread. The Greens' interior expert Irene Mihalic called for bans on associations to be examined. Organizations like Samidoun - the one with the sweets on Sonnenallee - are now in the crosshairs.
According to intelligence officials, the association belongs to the radical Palestinian organization PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and is hostile to Israel. The PFLP itself propagates the armed struggle against Israel, but unlike Hamas, it is not religious. The PFLP has a few dozen supporters in Germany, mainly older ones.
0
Read also
Special Leopard: Ukraine gets "best tank in the world" from Sweden
READ
Preliminary final result of the Bavarian election: CSU falls below old low – Aiwanger clearly ahead of AfD
READ
Ukraine rejoices over heavy blow to Russia's tank fleet
READ
Bavaria election: Söder rejects Aiwanger's demand with cabinet bill – "Were merciful"
READ
Armin Laschet on war in Israel: Why Hamas' "outright invasion" is coming right now
READ
Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My Area
Hundreds of Hamas supporters in Germany
Hamas, which launched the massive attacks on Israel on Saturday, is backed by around 450 people, many of whom are German citizens, according to estimates by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany. The use of Hamas symbols is a criminal offence in Germany. "Western states such as Germany are viewed by Hamas as a safe haven where the organization focuses on collecting donations, recruiting new followers and spreading its propaganda," the 2022 report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution states.
A ban on samidoun would be the least we could do, according to the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. One must "honestly ask whether we have done enough in recent years to combat international anti-Semitism," said Thiemo Reinfrank, the foundation's managing director, to the Rheinische Post. This often begins with the glorification of terror and free sweets on Sonnenallee, "but in the end it always ends with dead Jews."
Again and again insults and attacks in Berlin
In fact, in Berlin there are always insults and even attacks on people who are recognizable as Jews through clothing, language or symbols. This happens to men who wear a kippah - the traditional Jewish head covering - as well as to people who talk on the phone in Hebrew or show a Star of David on a chain. It is unclear how large the proportion of perpetrators of Arab origin is. Neither the police nor the victim support organisations record the religious or ethnic background.
What is clear is that there are repeated anti-Israel demonstrations by Palestinian groups in Berlin-Neukölln and elsewhere. Usually a few hundred people take part, demanding an independent Palestinian state in place of Israel. Banners then depict maps on which the territory of Israel is drawn in green, in the color of Islam. "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free," the chants go. So from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the state of Palestine is supposed to extend where Israel is now.
Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans
Last Easter, at a Palestinian demonstration in Neukölln and Kreuzberg, some participants chanted anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans. Observers reported that slogans such as "Death to the Jews, death to Israel" were also shouted. The police investigated on suspicion of incitement to hatred and evaluated videos. In the months that followed, some Palestinian demonstrations were banned by the Berlin police.
Israel's ambassador Ron Prosor wrote some time ago that he did not expect "the streets of Neukölln to be so similar to those of Gaza." And: "This terrorist propaganda in the heart of Berlin is a disgrace." But he also emphasized: "The majority of the population here in Neukölln are good, decent people." dpa