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ISRAEL

Copenhageners show their support for Gaza

Mogens Lykketoft and other prominent Danish politicians joined hundreds of demonstrators in calling for an end to Israel's attacks on Gaza.

Copenhageners show their support for Gaza
A Palestinian flag flies over a see of supporters in Copenhagen. Photo: Nikolai Linares/Scanpix
More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen) on Wednesday to show their support for Gaza.
 
The Speaker of Parliament, Mogens Lykketoft, was among those who called for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which on Wednesday claimed the lives of four children playing on a beach. It is estimated that Israel’s recent strikes on Gaza have killed more than 200 people.
 
“Denmark must with all our might support the global society’s demand for an immediate stop to both sides’ actions and all collective punishment of the civilian population,” Lykketoft told the assembled crowd. 
 
He called on Israel to stop its “incomprehensibly unequal” actions in Gaza. 
 
“Precisely because Israel defines itself as a part of a Western, democratic civilization, righteousness should trump revenge as a guiding force,” he said.  
 
Lykketoft also used his speech to criticise Israeli settlements in Palestine.
 
“Israel has continuously expanded its settlements and annexed more Palestinian territory in violation of international law,” he said. “600,000 Israeli settlers now live in occupied Palestine. This progressive colonisation must be stopped.”
 
Also participating in Wednesday’s demonstration were Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen of the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), Lisbeth Bech Poulsen from the Socialist People’s Party and comedian Omar Marzouk.
 
The demonstration was organized by the Danish-Palestinian Friendship Association. An additional demonstration in support of Gaza is planned for Thursday at 5pm at Nørreport Station.

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ISRAEL

Former Israeli soldier attacked on Berlin street

A former Israeli soldier was attacked in the German capital Berlin, police said Saturday, with one or several unknown assailants spraying him with an irritant and throwing him to the ground.

Former Israeli soldier attacked on Berlin street
Israeli soldiers on operation near the Gaza Strip. Photo: dpa | Ilia Yefimovich

The 29-year-old was wearing a top with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) logo when the attackers started harassing him on Friday about his religion, the police added, calling it “an anti-Semitic attack”.

Officers are seeking the assailants, who fled immediately after the attack, on suspicion of a politically-motivated crime.

Saturday is the second anniversary of an attack by a far-right gunman on a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle, who killed two in a rampage when he failed to break into the house of worship.

It was one of a string of incidents that led authorities to declare the far right and neo-Nazis Germany’s top security threat.

Also this week, a musician claimed he was turned away from a hotel in eastern city Leipzig for wearing a Star-of-David pendant.

While the allegations prompted a fierce response from a Jewish community unsettled by increasing anti-Semitic crimes, several investigations have been mounted into contradictory accounts of the incident.

In 2019, police recorded 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes, an increase of 13 percent year-on-year.

“The threat is complex and comes from different directions” from jihadists to the far right, the federal government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism Felix Klein said recently.

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