July 17, 2018 | The Jerusalem Post
Group of men attacks German Jew wearing Israeli pin and kippa
A large group of men attacked a 17-year-old German Jew who wore an Israeli pin and kippah on Friday night in what the police believe was an antisemitic attack.
Media in the German city of Dusseldorf reported that some 10 men of “North African or Mediterranean” appearance pushed the young Jewish man, causing painful injuries.
The men also insulted the youth, whose name was not published in German media reports. According to the police, the suspects are between the ages of 18 and 23. Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted in response to The Jerusalem Post story: “Those are not just separate and distinct events. It’s a pattern, a pattern of antisemitic attacks by Muslim migrants against the members of the Jewish community, just because they are Jewish. It is unacceptable anywhere, and doubly so in Germany.”
Michael Szentei-Heise,the executive director of the Jewish community in Dusseldorf, told the WAZ daily newspaper that the attack showed, “For the safety of Jewish citizens in Germany it is catastrophic.”
The Post reported last week that a German of Palestinian origin physically attacked an Israeli professor in Bonn who was wearing a kippah. In Berlin, an Israeli Arab was violently attacked in April by a Syrian refugee because he was wearing a kippah. According to a German federal government study, 40% of Germans hold modern antisemitic views – the loathing of the Jewish state.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal.
Follow the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Twitter @FDD. FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.