Syrian attacker smashes window of kosher restaurant in Amsterdam

Police used pepper spray to subdue a vandal who smashed a window  at a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam, the sixth act attack on the restaurant in recent years.

By World Israel News and AP

An attacker used a stone to smash a hole in one of the large windows of the kosher HaCarmel restaurant in Amsterdam on Friday before pushing a flagpole with the Israeli flag through the hole.

The assailant was identified as a Syrian man named Saleh Ali, JNS reported.

Amsterdam police tweeted that they had arrested the suspect, using pepper spray to subdue him during the sixth act of vandalism at the restaurant in recent years.

Ali last smashed HaCarmel’s windows in 2017 using “a wooden club while waving a Palestinian flag,” JTA reported at the time.

He also absconded with an Israeli flag hanging from the restaurant during the 2017 incident, which earned him 52 days in jail awaiting trial, after which he was released based on time served.

The attack came on the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces in Europe, although there was no immediate indication of a link.

The vandalism also came after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the coronavirus pandemic is unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.”

The U.N. chief said that “anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have spread, and COVID-19-related anti-Muslim attacks have occurred.”