In Berlin, the annual anti-Israel Al-Quds took place in March. In contrast, more than 1000 people demonstrated. Among them prominent politicians. Out of solidarity with kippah. Sabine Kinkartz reported.
It is a little after 16 o’clock on this Sunny Saturday afternoon on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm of the Al-Quds March and a rally with counter-protesters on the other side of the Boulevard will encounter. A broad social Alliance of the Jewish community of Berlin, the German-Israeli society, political parties and citizens ‘ initiatives had called for the counter-demonstration.
Both sides, each with around 1000 people of approximately the same size. “Allahu akbar” and “freedom for Palestine” call men, women, and children in chants, on the one side. Posters resistance against Israel” and “Every 2 is: “Zionism is racism”, “. The day Israel kills a child in Palestine”.
“Length of Israel,” live, chanting the counter-demonstrators, who had waited for an hour on the George-Grosz-Platz, behind the shut-off bars on the Al-Quds March. From a pop music stage blasting the car at full volume. How wild, hundreds of people panning flag small, white, and blue of Israel. “When anti-Semites raise their hatred, in the end, the main resistance is announced”, said the Deputy of the Bundestag President and the left politician Petra Pau, just still on the stage.
Al-Quds means Jerusalem
On the side of the counter-demonstrators Juliane Zach is and is absolutely outraged. It is incredible that an anti-Semitic hate should pull a Demonstration of how the Al-Quds March through the middle of Berlin. “No, it is not allowed to be in Germany, but possible,” says the 59-Year-old, and holds up a bright yellow poster in front of your chest. “Hezbollah-a ban is Now” on it. The radical Islamic Hezbollah stands behind the Al-Quds March.
Juliane Zach would like to see the Al-Quds March banned
Al-Quds is the Arabic Name for Jerusalem. Since 1979, Iran calls for the “liberation of Jerusalem”. “The annual Al-Quds marches in European cities are centrally controlled by the Islamist Iranian Regime and its related institutions,” says Kim Robin Stoller, International Institute for Education and Research on Antisemitism in Berlin. For him, the marches “Iranian foreign policy on European soil”.
Against Zionism but not against Jews?
In Germany, the Al-Quds marches have been held since 1980. For long years have been spread openly anti-Semitic slogans. This is prohibited since in 2016. To show just how the symbols of Hezbollah, or to burn items. “We want to set a sign against Zionism, not against the Jews”, to defend themselves, the organizers of the Al-Quds March. In fact, in one part of the train “hatred of Jews is a disgrace – called has no place in this country”. “If we were Semites, anti, we would not call that,” one of the speakers.
The Al-Quds March, Germany were waving flags
On the side of the counter-demonstrators, you don’t want to believe it. Especially as the organizer of the Al-Quds-had tried to March to the last in vain, to leave a portion of the bans in court, repeal it. The Berliner Juliane Zach is skeptical and calls to ban the whole March, and the Hezbollah. The Iranian-funded Lebanese Shiite militia, was classified in other European countries as a terrorist organization and banned. “This must also happen in Germany”, calls you.
Berlin’s Senator for the interior, with a kippah
This would also be in the sense of the Central Council of the Jews. In the case of the Al-Quds-Demonstration, nothing else will be transported as anti-Semitism and Israel-hatred, as Central Council President Josef Schuster. Hostility to Jews was part of everyday life in Germany. It also sees the anti-Semitism Officer of the Federal government, Felix Klein, and one of the speakers at the counter-demonstration. He had taken care of in advance for the irritation, he said, that you could recommend Jews, the Jewish head covering, to wear the kippah.
Shows solidarity: Berlin’s interior Senator Andreas hostage
Berlin’s interior Senator Andreas hostage to the wrong. On the counter-rally at Al-Quds March and he’s wearing ostentatiously a kippah. “We stand firmly on the side of the Jews who live here, and on the side of Israel,” he said, and complained that there had been in Berlin in the last months of anti-Semitic attacks and incitement. “This spirit has to search in Berlin, nothing.” A ban on the March was legally not possible. “Freedom of speech and Assembly are basic rights in our country,” said hostage. Therefore, the Assembly of contactors represented by law, “the only hard-to-tolerable views, and on the streets wear”.
And what 2020 is happening?
After some ten minutes of the Al-Quds March on George Grosz’s passed-place. Stay back against protesters, who are chanting for several minutes more wild and hardly want to calm down. But eventually, calm returns, the music is quieter made. For this year, the March is history. Whether it will take place again next year at the end of Ramadan, the politicians are arguing now.