Israel Matzav

Once again, this time in Berlin, where are the police?

A group of self-proclaimed BDS'ers, including at least one Israeli, disrupted a free concerted by an Israeli choral group in Berlin on Saturday night.

But where were the police? There are one or two people in the video below who appear to be security guards of some sort, but all they seem to be doing is to be shielding the 'protesters' from the audience's wrath.

Let's go to the videotape.



You can see the full story of what happened and how here. But for those who don't click through, I'd like you to at least understand that this is not about Judea and Samaria.

According to a notice on the German- language website of the Israeli Embassy, Gevatron waved the entrance fees and said that any donations would be used to help plant trees on Mount Carmel following the devastating fires in 2010. The choir event was held in a Berlin church.

In an email to the Post on Saturday, Alex Feuerherdt, a German journalist who writes extensively about anti-Israel activity in the Federal Republic, wrote: “The anti- Semitic character of the ‘protest’ was made clear through two points.” First, he cited the slogan “From the river to the sea: Palestine will be free,” which “can only mean ‘free from Jews.’” Feuerherdt said the second sign the action contained “modern anti- Semitism” involved the protesters’ defamation of the Jewish National Fund, the sponsor of the choir group, as “one of the oldest and effective instruments of Zionist Apartheid and repression in Palestine.”

He said the comparison between Israel and the [former South African] Apartheid system aimed to delegitimize and demonize Israel and was a method that characterized contemporary anti- Semitism.

Feuerherdt added that the “very aggressive action of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] activists deals in no way with peace or the well-being of the Palestinians; rather, the destruction of Israel.”

Meanwhile, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told the Post on Monday, “The uncivil disruption of an Israeli cultural event is another example of the penetration of anti- Israel political warfare in Berlin, which was also reflected in sponsorship by the Willy Brandt Haus of an NGO exhibit falsely accusing Israeli forces of ‘war crimes.’ And instead of naming and shaming the promoters of this modern form of anti- Semitism, Berlin’s (anti-)Jewish Museum joined the attack by hosting BDS campaigner Judith Butler.

In this atmosphere, Berlin’s leaders have a moral obligation to act clearly and strongly to condemn all manifestations of such immoral behavior.”

Willy Brandt Haus is the headquarters of Germany’s Social Democratic Party.

At the very least, it is time for those who represent Israeli culture abroad to take Israeli security guards with them as protection. The local police in many cities, particularly in Europe, have shown themselves to be unreliable. 

Labels: BDS, Egyptian anti-Semitism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:14 PM