A young Palestinian assailant reportedly shouted “no Jew in Germany” at an Israeli professor in Bonn, knocking the man’s skullcap off during the assault.
By: World Israel News Staff
On Wednesday, an Israeli philosophy professor who teaches in the US was assaulted in the German city of Bonn by a 20-year-old German whom local media described as having “Palestinian roots.”
During the attack, the assailant shove the professor several times, knocking off his skull cap, while hollering, “No Jew in Germany,” reported Times of Israel.
Following the assault, German police mistakenly thought the victim was the attack’s instigator, resulting in a subsequent scuffle with law enforcement and ultimately an apology from the local police chief.
According to the Times of Israel report, the victim was a 50-year-old professor who teaches at the University of Baltimore and had arrived in Bonn to serve as a guest lecturer.
Police arrested the Palestinian assailant, who was later released, with criminal proceedings on suspicion of incitement and assault expected to follow.
Bonn Mayor Ashok Sridharan issued a statement on the incident on Thursday, commenting, “I strongly condemn the attack and apologize to the scientist for the fact that this happened to him here in Bonn.”
The General-Anzeiger Bonn website indicated that the city will stage a “Kippah Day” next week, an event during which participants don skullcapd to express solidarity with Jews in their fight against anti-Semitism.
Like many of its European neighbors, Germany has been forced to confront recent anti-Semitic attacks, with German police arresting 10 people on Sunday after an incident in a Berlin park involving a group of Syrians.
In April, a Palestinian-Syrian migrant mounted a vicious attack on an Arab-Israeli man wearing a kippah, lashing the victim with a belt while he screamed “Jew” in Arabic.
Incidents such as these have resulted in demands from Jewish organizations to Germany’s government to address anti-Semitic violence, including the spate of incidents involving Muslim immigrants.
Specifically, Germany’s Jewish Forum for Democracy Against Anti-Semitism (JFDA) issued an open letter and policy statement signed by 38 groups recommending that all funds for civil and religious organizations be conditioned on public declarations disavowing anti-Semitism.