Berlin: Syrian charged in anti-Semitic assault on skullcap-wearing Israeli Arab

A Syrian was charged in an anti-Semitic assault in Berlin last month on an Israeli-Arab wearing a skullcap.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff

A 19-year-old Syrian man has been charged in an assault in Berlin last month on an Israeli-Arab wearing a skullcap.

Berlin prosecutors said Friday that the suspect, identified only as Knaan Al S. because of German privacy rules, a Palestinian asylum seeker from Syria, was charged with bodily harm and slander.

The victim, Adam Armush, caught the April 17 assault in a video showing the attacker whipping him with a belt while shouting “Yahudi!” — Arabic for “Jew.”

The incident fueled concerns about anti-Semitism in Germany and drew condemnation from Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The suspect turned himself in to police two days later.

Armush, a 21-year-old student, is actually an Israeli Arab who wore the head covering to see if it was safe to don the Jewish religious symbol on the streets of an upper-class Berlin neighborhood.

Armush told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that when the attacker rushed him, “I immediately felt it was important to film, because I didn’t think we could catch him before police arrived. I wanted to give police something to go on.”

“I am not Jewish, I am an Israeli and I grew up in Israel in an Arab family,” Armush explained. “It was an experience for me to wear the skullcap and go out into the street yesterday.”

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After Armush was struck several times by the screaming assailant, a passerby stopped the attacker, pushing him away and yelling at him.

A week later, thousands of Germans donned Jewish skullcaps and took to the streets in several cities to protest the anti-Semitic attack in Berlin and express fears about growing hatred of Jews in the country.