Jew in nightclub beaten over Star of David necklace

The police have yet to declare the attack a hate-related crime.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A man was violently assaulted recently in a Dublin nightclub, after his assailants spotted his Star of David necklace and verified that he was Jewish.

The 23-year-old victim, who is an American studying in Ireland, told The Irish Times that he was in the bathroom when he was approached by three men who asked him, “Are you Jewish?”

He said that after he answered that he was, they proceeded to assault him.

“I took multiple punches to the back of the head and back of the torso,” he related. His knee momentarily gave out and he fell to the floor, before he “stumbled out of the door and hit the ground.”

At that point, the club’s security personnel broke up the attack. The police arrived shortly thereafter, and started taking witness statements.

One of the alleged perpetrators was taken into custody.

The next day the victim had a headache and went to the hospital for an examination. A week later, he was still suffering headaches, his balance was off and he was sensitive to light, all common signs of having a concussion.

The incident took place in the early hours of Saturday, November 9, less than two days after hundreds of Dutch Muslims and other pro-Palestinians went on a pre-planned rampage on the streets of Amsterdam against Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv following the team’s evening match against a local soccer team.

A bystander in the club, who hadn’t seen the assault, interrupted the police interviews to link the two events, commenting, “The Jews in Amsterdam – they got what they deserved.”

This showed the victim, he said, that “there was an awareness that there was a religious aspect to this.”

The authorities opened an investigation into the assault, but have not yet decided to call it out as antisemitism.

“Investigations into all the circumstances of this incident, including any hate related motivation, are ongoing and a Diversity Liaison Officer has been appointed to support the injured party,” a spokesperson for the Garda said.

The Jewish community, which is only a few thousand strong, has no doubts on the subject.

“We implore the Government and Gardaí to act swiftly and decisively to bring the perpetrators to justice and to address the disturbing trend of anti-Semitism that endangers our community and violates Ireland’s core values,” said Maurice Cohen, head of the Jewish Representative Council Of Ireland.

Ireland’s government is one of the most anti-Israel on the Continent, and has repeatedly and harshly criticized the Jewish state during the ongoing war with the Hamas terrorists who in a surprise attack last October massacred 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, 101 of whom are still in captivity.

There have been many demonstrations in the country against the Jewish state over the past year.

Israel’s ambassador to Dublin, Dana Ehrlich, was recalled to Jerusalem in May, after Ireland recognized “Palestine” as a state.

Ten days ago, she was interviewed on an Irish radio program and said forthrightly, “The Jewish community [and] the Israeli community are not feeling safe – this is antisemitism.”

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