German police on Thursday killed a young man known for religious radicalization who was preparing to commit a “terrorist attack” against the Israeli consulate general in Munich, on the day commemorating the deadly hostage-taking of that country’s athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games.
“Anti-Semitism and Islamism have no place in our country,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded on his X account.
German police spoke of “a terrorist attack linked to the Consulate General of the State of Israel” in Munich, instigated by an 18-year-old Austrian.
The young man, of Bosnian origin, was killed by the police after firing several shots around 9 a.m. in the direction of police officers guarding sensitive buildings in Munich, including the Israeli consul general, local authorities said.
He was armed with an old-model rifle, fitted with a bayonet.
– Radicalisation –
The young man from Salzburg is “suspected of having become religiously radicalized and of being interested in explosives”. He had been “already known to the police since February 2023”, after being accused in particular of “participating in a terrorist group”, and was subject to a ban on carrying a weapon, according to the Austrian police. But the investigation was closed in April 2023.
According to the German weekly Der Spiegel and the daily Bild, investigators had at the time discovered propaganda for the Islamic State (IS) organisation on his mobile phone.
On X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed “his horror” after this “terrorist attack”.
“This event shows how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is. It is important that the general public vigorously opposes it,” stressed the Israeli consul in Munich, Talya Lador-Fresher, in a statement sent to AFP by email.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered the war in Gaza, the German authorities have been particularly on guard against the Islamist threat and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, like many countries around the world.
According to German authorities, Thursday’s shootings are “probably” linked to the anniversary of the bloody hostage-taking at the Olympic Games on September 5, 1972.
In this attack committed by a Palestinian commando, eleven Israeli athletes were killed, as well as a policeman and five hostage-takers.
– “Very serious” –
A ceremony commemorating the victims of the 1972 hostage-taking was cancelled Thursday in Germany’s Fürstenfeldbruck, where the Israeli athletes were shot dead.
Speaking of a “very serious act”, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser assured that “the protection of Jewish and Israeli establishments is an absolute priority”.
Germany has been on alert for months because it considers itself “in the crosshairs of jihadist organisations”.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the increase in anti-Jewish crimes has been a particular cause for concern in Germany, a country which, because of the Holocaust, has elevated support for Israel to the status of a reason of state.
A record number of 5,164 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded in 2023, compared to 2,641 in 2022, according to internal intelligence.
One of the most prominent anti-Semitic attacks in post-war Germany occurred in 2019: two people were killed after a neo-Nazi attempted to storm a synagogue in Halle, in the former GDR, on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany estimates that there are around 100,000 practicing Jews in the country and around 100 synagogues.
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