Germany must protect its Jews, Israeli ambassador says
The Israeli ambassador to Germany has asked authorities to protect the country’s Jewish community.
Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff spoke out after Jewish synagogues were vandalized in several German cities this week. The incidents were reportedly motivated by the current violence in Israel and Gaza.
“I urgently request the German authorities to do everything to ensure the security of our community here,” Issacharoff said on Friday in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD.
The Israeli government is very concerned about antisemitic acts such as the attacks on synagogues in Bonn, Munster and other cities, he said.
“The conflict in the Middle East has nothing to do with the Jewish community here in Germany,” Issacharoff added.
What happened?
Three separate incidents occurred on Tuesday night in the cities of Bonn, Dusseldorf and Munster in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
In Münster, police sent officers to a synagogue where a group of men had gathered. They were reportedly shouting and burning an Israeli flag.
Officers said the building was not damaged and 13 men had been charged with holding an illegal gathering.
In Bonn, three men between the ages of 20 and 24 were detained for burning an Israeli flag, as well as throwing rocks at a synagogue’s windows.
In Düsseldorf, police said a fire was lit on top of a stone memorial for a synagogue destroyed by Nazis during the infamous Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, in November of 1938.
Who else has condemned the incidents?
Issacharoff is the latest public figure to have spoken out against the incidents, along with politicians and faith leaders.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called for better protection for synagogues, while Germany’s antisemitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, called for action from the police and judiciary. Catholic Bishop Georg Bätzing said such attacks were unjustifiable.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Friday’s edition of the Bild newspaper, “Whoever burns Star of David flags or shouts antisemitic slogans on our streets is not only abusing the right to demonstrate but committing a crime.”
“We neither want to, nor will we, tolerate the hatred of Jews,” Steinmeier added.
The Initiative Against Antisemitism Gelsenkirchen, a community organization in the city, took to Twitter to announce that it had registered a public vigil to take place in front of the synagogue on Friday evening in response to Wednesday’s events. Its motto: “No room for antisemitism — solidarity with the Jewish community of Gelsenkirchen.”
kmm/sms (Reuters,AFP, dpa, KNA)
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