This is a story which will be worth following in spite of the fact that it contains little that is truly new regarding the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. And we are glad that this incident took place in Berlin.
-- Karl Wolff III, Associate Director, NSP. 1488!
German police megaphone used in anti-Israel rant
BERLIN
(AP) — German police allowed an anti-Israel protester to climb inside a
police car and shout slogans including "child murderer Israel" and
"Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is Great!" — through a police
megaphone, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt's police said Sunday.
Police
let the protester use the megaphone during a Free Gaza demonstration
Saturday because he had offered to calm down a protest that had turned
violent, spokeswoman Virginie Wegner told The Associated Press.
"We
as police had come up spontaneously with this unusual method and he
abused it — we didn't expect that," Wegner said, adding that police were
investigating the incident. "Police are neutral during protests."
Instead
of calming things down, the protester — whose identity was not revealed
— shouted anti-Israel slogans in German and Arabic in downtown
Frankfurt. A video that went viral shows a crowd following the police
car, cheering and repeating the chants.
More
than 2,000 people participated in the Frankfurt protest, many waving
Palestinian flags and wearing T-shirts calling for a boycott of Israeli
products.
The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, condemned the incident.
"I'm
shocked that a German police car was used to spread hatred and
agitation," Graumann told the AP. "It was a big mistake that the police
let themselves abuse for this."
Since
the outbreak of the latest violence between Israel and the Palestinians
six days ago, there have been several demonstrations for and against
Israel in different German cities including Frankfurt, Berlin and
Duesseldorf.
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