‘Shoot Jews or hand them over to Hamas!’: Antisemitic demonstration, police inaction in Berlin spark outrage

According to Bild, only three individuals were temporarily detained to confirm their identities, and two defamation complaints have been filed so far.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Participants in an anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstration in Germany this past weekend called for Jews to be executed or handed over to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, sparking outrage among German leaders.

Under the slogan “Hands off the West Bank,” protesters, mostly of Arab descent, marched through Berlin from Alexanderplatz to Potsdamer Platz on Saturday, German media reported.

“Anyone with a weapon should use it to shoot Jews or hand them over to Hamas!” the marchers chanted loudly several times, according to the German tabloid newspaper Bild. Up to 280 activists reportedly participated in the demonstration.

In response, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner is now pushing for an initiative to potentially ban protests that incite violence.

“If a movement consistently promotes violence and hatred, the Berlin police will consider banning these protests,” Wegner told Bild. “Inciting hatred and calling for terrorism are not acts of free speech, but criminal offenses. The safety and protection of Jews are my highest priority.”

“When I hear such misanthropic and antisemitic slogans at the demonstrations in Berlin, it deeply shocks me,” Wegner continued. “In this instance, the police and judiciary of Berlin will take action against the alleged offenders with the full force of the rule of law.”

On Saturday, however, it appears that law enforcement did little to intervene.

According to the Berlin police, the demonstration on Saturday involved “statements potentially punishable by law for supporting terrorist organizations banned in Germany.”

Police are currently reviewing the footage of the protest, with the documentation being handled by the State Security Service.

“Due to language barriers and the level of noise associated with the event, a clear translation could not be made for an immediate assessment,” the police said in a post on X/Twitter.

According to Bild, only three individuals were temporarily detained to confirm their identities, and two defamation complaints have been filed so far.

Peter Langer, secretary general of the center-right Berlin Free Democratic Party (FDP), condemned the weekend demonstration, stressing that the police should be given the authority to quickly disperse protests that essentially promote terrorist propaganda.

“Kai Wegner must finally turn his grand words into actions,” Langer said. “I expect him to present a concrete plan on how they intend to stop this issue.”

Last year, Berlin experienced a record number of antisemitic incidents, with the total for the first six months of 2024 exceeding the entire count for 2023.

Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS) documented 1,383 antisemitic incidents in Berlin from January to June, averaging nearly eight per day.

The figure compiled by RIAS, a federally-funded body, was a significant increase from the 1,270 antisemitic outrages tallied in 2023 and the highest count for a single year since RIAS began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015.

Of the 1,383 incidents documented in the first half of last year, two were cases of “extreme violence,” another 23 were attacks (six of which were against children), and 37 were targeted acts of property damage, including 21 acts involving memorials.

Like many countries around the world, Germany has seen a major spike in antisemitic incidents following Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

During the Oct. 7 onslaught, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and took 251 hostages to Gaza while committing widespread sexual violence, making it the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.