Israeli street artist attacked in Berlin

A Jewish Israeli street artist was beaten in Berlin on New Year’s Eve after four Arabs noticed a peace pin she was wearing featuring the Israeli and Palestinian flags in a heart.

The pin was made by an Israel-Palestinian restaurant called Kanaan Berlin, which publicized the attack Saturday on Instagram.

According to the post, a young Arab female approached the woman, called “Soli,” and allegedly shouted “Israel must go,” before pulling the victim’s hair.

Three male friends then joined the attack, hitting Soli in the head.

The Israeli was taken to the hospital to treat the head injury, according to the post, which called on the police to bring the assailants to justice.

The eatery, which bills itself as an “Israeli & Palestinian co-op proving every day that together is better and tastier,” also called on “all community and cultural leaders in the city to condemn this violence unequivocally.”

“Berlin must not become a place where violence and hate are deemed acceptable tools,” it continued. “The pain of the Palestinian people is not an excuse for violence and we in Kanaan vehemently condemn all forms of attack.”

Kanaan was seriously vandalized in July, with bottles broken and wine spilled everywhere in an act co-owner Oz Ben-David called “pure destruction.”

In an Instagram post after the incident, the restaurant wrote that nothing was stolen but that “The aggressors broke wine glasses, defiled our space with disgusting acts, and spread hate throughout the restaurant.”

Ben-David and his partner, Jalil Dabit, who both hail from Israel, vowed that they would not “cower to threats and hate” and would continue with their “mission to spread love, acceptance, and delicious food to all who walk through our doors.”

The vegan place that opened nearly a decade ago shut its doors for six days after the Hamas-led invasion last October 7, due to an immediate upswing in antisemitic attacks throughout Europe, but as Ben-David told The Guardian a month later, “If you are closing up you are surrendering to terror. We will not agree to this kind of language of fear.”

In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung some two weeks after the war began, the self-styled peace activist had said that when he had seen “saw all the videos and the catastrophic things that happened in Israel” he had asked himself whether the promotion of tolerance and breaking down of prejudices that he and his partner were trying to foster was “even possible.”

It was Dabit, who was living back in his home, he said, who “reminded me that it is the only option, that there is no other solution than for people to sit down, talk to each other and find a way for a common future.”