Lhe Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik has just issued a worrying warning. In an interview given to the daily Berliner Zeitung, she asks Jews and homosexuals to be on their guard when they walk in certain streets of this capital known for its air of freedom. Even if, she hastens to add, there is no no-go areas in Berlin, “there are places – we are forced to admit – where I advise people who wear a yarmulke or who are openly gay or lesbian to be careful”.
Barbara Slowik does not cite any neighborhood so as not to “defame” certain groups of people, but she nevertheless specifies: “Unfortunately, there are neighborhoods where a majority of people of Arab origin live who openly have sympathies for terrorist groups. anti-Semites. » They should therefore be avoided.
Jews in Berlin have been reporting for some time that they no longer feel safe in the city. Some refrain from speaking Hebrew in the street, others refuse to go out wearing the cross of David or the yarmulke. A fear that the figures confirm. Since October 7, 2023 and the Hamas terrorist attack, anti-Semitic acts have increased sharply. More than 6,500 investigations into anti-Semitic acts have been opened. Most of these investigations concern hate messages on the Internet, property damage and propaganda crimes. 1,300 investigations relate to physical violence, most of which are attacks against the police responsible for monitoring demonstrations.
According to the Center for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), which collects and analyzes reports of antisemitic incidents, 1,270 incidents were reported in May 2023, an increase of 50% compared to the year. previous. Nearly two-thirds of incidents took place after October 7.
Pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic graffiti
In Berlin, every week brings its share of incidents. Last weekend, the gigantic Ernst-Thälmann monument in the trendy Prenzlauer Berg district was covered in pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic graffiti. “Free Gaza!” », We could read under the bust of the former president of the German Communist Party assassinated in 1944 in the Buchenwald concentration camp. The same weekend, in the Kreuzberg district, the facade of the evangelical Sainte-Marthe church was smeared with “Free Palestine” and “FCK Juden” graffiti.
In the Neukölln district, where young, trendy people from all over the world rub shoulders with a population with a strong Arab and Palestinian majority, the owner of an Israeli restaurant is aware that an incident could happen at any time. “My restaurant,” he says, “is located two streets from Sonnenallee, nicknamed Berlin's Gaza, and since I moved here, I have been on my guard. It's a miracle nothing has happened yet. Not a single graffiti, not a single threat. »
After the violence in Amsterdam, the police will be on alert on Thursday, November 28 in Berlin. It was on this day that Tel Aviv's Maccabi basketball team met Alba-Berlin at the Arena stadium for a European league match. In February, an Israeli-German meeting took place without problem. But the police fear incidents this time and have reinforced their presence. On Instagram, some, claiming that they “do not want Israeli sports teams here”, are demanding that the Berlin club Alba cancel this meeting.
It is not recommended to hold hands in the street
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Kangaroo of the day
Answer
In this nightlife capital known for its gay clubs, concern is spreading among the LGBT community in certain neighborhoods where holding hands or kissing in the street is not recommended. Already a year ago, Martin Hikel, the social democratic mayor of the Neukölln district, reported an alarming increase in violence against homosexuals. He noted that most of the attackers were migrants of Muslim origin.
Last year, it was the Die Busche club for gays and lesbians that sounded the alarm. A 40-year-old Berlin institution. Its owner, who saw the survival of her club threatened by the installation of a center for refugees that could accommodate up to 650 people on the sidewalk opposite, wrote an open letter to the mayor of Berlin. “In recent months,” she wrote, “the number of crimes committed against homosexual people has increased enormously. Most of the offenders are migrants of Muslim origin. This reception center is going to explode these cases. To which Berlin's social services responded that they wanted to keep this place out of “humanitarian duty”.
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