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IMMIGRATION

Jewish man beaten in Berlin for wearing kippah

A young man reported being attacked in the east of the capital in Tuesday evening by a group of three men who spotted his religious skullcap.

Published: 22 June 2016 15:03 CEST
Jewish man beaten in Berlin for wearing kippah
Photo: DPA

The attack happened at around 9.30pm in the Alt-Treptow neighbourhood, police report.

According to the 21-year-old victim, three men of Arabic appearance reacted to his kippah – a religious cap worn by Jewish men – and then started to insult him.

The men then went on to kick and punch him before running away from the scene.

The young man was lightly injured but did not need to go to hospital.

Instances of anti-Semitic crime are on the rise in Berlin, as are hate crimes of various forms, according to a report published in March.

Hate crime monitoring groups ReachOut and Berliner Register reported at the time that there were 320 incidents of attacks motivated by anti-Semitism, racism, or homophobia in 2015, up from 179 in 2014.

Twenty-five of the attacks last year were connected to anti-Semitism, compared to 18 the year before.

Most victims of anti-Semitic crime are wearing kippahs at the time of the attack, Tagesspiegel reports.

In one such attack, in October 2015, four men of Middle Eastern appearance insulted and spat at an Israeli travelling on the city’s underground system.

Jewish leaders have expressed concern that refugees arriving from the Middle East could pose a danger to Jews in Germany.

Salomon Korn, president of the Frankfurt Jewish community, warned in January that many refugees had grown up in environments rife with anti-Semitism.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has said previously that he was more worried about home-grown extremists than anti-Semitism among arriving refugees.

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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