This is a real stone in the pond launched by the head of the Berlin police, Barbara Slowik (photo). In a newspaper interview Berliner Zeitung published Monday, the official recognized the existence of areas of the German capital where everyone's safety is no longer guaranteed. “ We have to be honest, there are places where I advise people who wear a yarmulke or are openly gay or lesbian to be careful “, she said. Relaunched on the precise identity of these “ places », the fifty-year-old did not beat around the bush and ignored the usual political correctness. It is “ neighborhoods in which a majority of people of Arab origin live who also have sympathy for terrorist groups “, she replied bluntly. And to recall that since October 7, 2023 and the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, more than 6,200 investigations for anti-Semitism had been opened.
We remember, in particular, the recent attack on a synagogue in Berlin with Molotov cocktails or the attack, last February, of a Jewish student, severely beaten by a pro-Palestinian student, which had sparked the excitement in the German capital. Just two weeks ago, after a match in Neukölln, in a neighborhood with a large Arab and Turkish population, the Maccabi Berlin junior football team was “ hunted » by a group of young people armed with sticks and knives who shouted “ Free Palestine » et « Fucking Jews ».
A freedom of tone prohibited in France
On our side of the Rhine, such honesty is still impossible. In 2015, the channel Fox News caused a sensation by publishing the list of “ no-go zones » Parisians, these Islamist enclaves where the police no longer dare to venture. All the right-thinking press then fell on the American media and on its journalist who had been overwhelmed by death threats… Last March, Arcom imposed a fine of 50,000 euros on CNews for remarks establishing a link between anti-Semitism and Arab-Muslim immigration.
However, the security of certain minorities is no more assured in France than in Germany. Here too, the pogrom of October 7, 2023 was celebrated in certain cities, just like September 11 and the anti-Semitic murders committed by Mohammed Merah in 2012. Here too, Jews and homosexuals have a hard time in certain neighborhoods. The number of homophobic acts increased by another 15% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, while anti-Semitic acts have jumped by 1,000% in France since the attack on October 7 . “ When there are enough of us in France, we will kill all the Jews », Warned a young man of Algerian origin, arrested on the night of November 14 to 15, on the sidelines of the France-Israel match at the Stade de France. We cannot say that we were not warned.
But unlike our neighbors, the analysis of this violence is subject to prosecution. Politicians, media and associations promise to fight against “hate”, while stubbornly refusing to designate religious texts that openly claim to be anti-Semitic and homophobic. How can we claim to cure an illness when we refuse to make a diagnosis?
Words…and actions?
If the speech of the head of the Berlin police has the merit of honesty, it nevertheless seems to endorse a certain political impotence. As if the only response to the Islamists was avoidance or flight. It seems established that Jews and homosexuals must now tear down the walls in the most Islamized neighborhoods of Berlin… and then? Will German police ask women to veil themselves to avoid being sexually assaulted? Will it encourage atheists to wear a djellaba in order to better blend into the background? Will she explain to the Germans that it is better, for their own safety, to leave the country of their ancestors?
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