Berlin synagogue targeted as antisemitic attacks rise
Berlin’s Jewish community has been shaken by two petrol bombs thrown at a synagogue amid a spike in antisemitic incidents in some European countries.
Police said two people threw “burning bottles filled with liquid” in what was described as attempted arson.
“We could feel the tensions more and more,” said director Anna Segal. She said the community had felt very threatened in recent days.
German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has expressed outrage at the attack.
Violence broke out elsewhere in Berlin overnight during anti-Israel protests. Emergency services were pelted with bottles, stones and fireworks. Protesters set barricades alight in a number of streets and one demonstration close to the Brandenburg Gate involved 700 people, police said.
The latest attacks came as Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah, called for a “day of rage” over an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of people are feared dead.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany said “day of rage” was not just a phrase but “psychological terror that leads to concrete attacks”. The synagogue also houses a community centre, a kindergarten and high school for 130 children. —BBC
