Posted on 04/02/2002 6:49:24 AM PST by veronica
A group of seven or eight men attacked two American Jews walking along one of Berlin's smartest streets after they visiting a synagogue, German police said Tuesday.
The incident, which happened Sunday, followed attacks in recent days on synagogues in France and Belgium. It was reported after Interior Minister Otto Schily said earlier Tuesday that security had been stepped up around Jewish sites across the country.
Police said the two 21-year-old New Yorkers were walking along Kurfuerstendamm, an avenue in west Berlin famous for its upmarket cafes and stores, after 9:30 p.m. when the group of young men with "southern" features appeared. German police usually use the expression "southern appearance" to describe people from southern Europe, north Africa or the Middle East.
The men asked whether the bearded New Yorkers were Jewish before pushing them to the ground. Police said the victims' black and white clothes identified them as Orthodox Jews.
One of the victims suffered facial wounds needing hospital treatment. The attackers fled the busy street and have not been caught.
In a separate incident, a swastika was painted on a Jewish memorial in Berlin in the early hours of Tuesday.
Recent attacks in Europe have sparked fears that tension in the Middle East will trigger a wave of violence against Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and institutions outside Israel.
"At the present time there is no concrete evidence of a planned attack in Germany," Schily said in a statement.
"Federal and local governments are alert all the same. Naturally we are doing everything to assure the safety of Jewish and Israeli fellow citizens and their institutions."
Schily said he had asked state authorities to step up protection of Jews and Jewish sites following the France and Belgium attacks.
The statement followed a call by a leading member of Germany's Jewish community to increase protection.
Michel Friedman, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the conflict in the Middle East was a matter for Israel and the Arab countries to resolve and was no excuse for anti-Semitism.
"To extend this to include all Jews shows the true, grotesque face of fanatical Islamists, who ultimately want to dump Israel in the sea and see Judaism as public enemy number one," Friedman said.
Most of Germany's significant Jewish sites are guarded by armed policemen. Barricades surround buildings such as Berlin's historic New Synagogue, and water cannon and armored vehicles are also in evidence.
"Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." That and the German Army isn't the biggest kid on the block anymore. It's a shame, I personally love the German people, the ones I have had the pleasure to meet are really good people. God help them if they get on my bad side though
The perpetrators in this incident appear to be Middle Eastern. When I left in 92, neo-nazism was rearing its head against Turkish immigrants.
Hard decision for the racist: Who do you hate more--Jews or dark-skinned Muslims?
Judging from the things I've seen on the net and elsewhere there's no question that neo-nazis hate Jews more than Muslims. In fact there are many contacts between American/European neo-nazis and Muslim terrorists.
They have learned nothing. The very fact that there are Jews in Germany speaks to this.
By the way, legally arming one's self anywhere in Europe is rather difficult. A good argument for getting out, if you ask me.
Are you planning on calling down lightening to destroy Germany if you get "angered?" Dude, you have to be one bad sucka.
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