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Fear rising amid Austria’s Jewish community after Vienna attack

The Vienna shooting has put Austria's Jewish community - already suffering amid rising anti-Semitism - on high alert.

Fear rising amid Austria's Jewish community after Vienna attack
An armed policeman stands guard in front of the synagogue in Seitenstettengasse in Vienna. Photo: HANS PUNZ / APA / AFP

Shalom Berntholz never closes his kosher restaurant in central Vienna, but as a new coronavirus-induced lockdown approached, he decided to shut early. That saved his life.

A gunman who supported the Islamic State (IS) group kicked off his shooting rampage on Monday evening right in front of his closed restaurant, killing a waitress opposite.

“Normally, we're open 365 days a year, even for Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Exceptionally, we closed. That's what saved our lives,” Berntholz tells AFP.

ANALYSIS: Vienna terror attack was 'only a matter of time' 

His restaurant “Alef Alef” is located on the ground floor of a white building that houses the offices of IKG, a body that represents Vienna's Jewish community and counts some 7,000 members.

The gunman, named as 20-year-old dual Austrian-Macedonian national Kujtim Fejzulai who was shot dead by police after killing four people, “started right at the foot of this building,” says Berntholz.

“Perhaps he saw there was nothing on our side and fired his gun opposite and killed that poor waitress. “You might think that it was also the Jewish community he was targeting, but in truth we will never know.”

Fejzulai, who was born in Vienna and whose parents come from North Macedonia, opened fire around 8 pm in this small, cobbled square where several popular bars and restaurants are located, as well as Jewish community offices.

Investigators have not yet been able to determine if the gunman was targeting the square's Jewish locations, or if he just picked this place for its lively nightlife.

'Traumatic scenes' 

The attack claimed by IS also took place just a dozen metres away from a building that symbolises the city's rich Jewish history: the “Stadttempel,” a magnificent 19th century synagogue.

It is the only synagogue in Vienna to have survived the Second World War and the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9-10, 1938 — a pogrom against Jews carried out by paramilitary Nazi forces and civilians.

Before the Second World War, there were some 192,000 Jews in Austria, nearly four percent of the population.

That community was reduced to almost nothing due to deportations and exile, but slowly built up again post-conflict.

Monday's gun rampage has revived memories of attacks against the Stadttempel synagogue in 1979 and 1981 by extremist Palestinian groups, with two people killed in the latter.

The European Jewish Congress on Tuesday said it “brings back tragic memories for us as one of the first attacks on Jewish targets in Europe happened at this very spot almost 40 years ago.”

Yoav Ashkenazy, a 38-year-old Israeli who has lived in Vienna for six years to study philosophy, decided to come see the scene of the attack with his own eyes.

He refuses to give in to fear.

“People walk around here with a kippah (a cap traditionally worn by Jewish men) without any problem,” he says.

“Vienna is a city on a human scale, provincial and to the left… No one, not even from the Muslim community, even considers touching a hair on the head of a Jewish person.”

The city's Jewish community — unlike that in Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen or Germany — has had a general feeling of living in a safe country that had until now been spared jihadist attacks.

Still, 550 anti-Semitic incidents — almost half of which were attributed to the far-right — were reported in 2019 in Austria, a figure that has doubled in five years.

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CRIME

When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Recent police operations have ended up in the shooting - and death- of suspects. What are the rules and guidelines Austrian police officers have to follow?

When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Austrian police officers, like their counterparts in many countries, are equipped with firearms as part of their law enforcement duties. However, the use of these weapons is strictly regulated by law, with clear guidelines and limitations in place to ensure public safety and accountability. 

Recent incidents have brought renewed attention to these regulations, sparking debate and discussion about when and how police officers are authorised to use force, including the use of firearms. Despite the recent events – with two deaths after suspects were shot by the police within two weeks, the number of such incidents in Austria is not high.

READ ALSO: What rules does Austria have on gun ownership?

In 2022, weapons were used 654 times by officers in 213 different incidents. In many incidents different police used their firearms and often more than once.

In those incidents some 137 people were left slightly injured, four were seriously injured, and no one was killed, according to a Der Standard report.

Provisional figures for 2023 show 328 uses of weapons in 202 different incidents. Sixty-five people were slightly injured, three were seriously injured, and two people were shot dead.

Looking back over a longer period of time, in the past 16 years, 18 people have died as a result of police use of firearms.

What are the rules?

The use of service weapons in Austria is regulated by the Weapons Use Act (Waffengebrauchsgesetz) of 1969, which states that law enforcement agencies such as police officers and municipal police officers may use weapons in cases of “just self-defence”, the report said.

For example, to overcome resistance to an official act, to make an arrest or to prevent the escape of an arrested person. Even then, the use of weapons is only permitted by law “if harmless or less dangerous measures”, including the threat of using weapons, pursuing a fleeing person, the use of physical force or milder means such as handcuffs, “appear unsuitable or have proven to be ineffective.” 

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

Only the least dangerous weapon may be used if various weapons are available – service weapons also include tear gas or batons. The purpose of using weapons against people may only be to “render the target incapable of attacking, resisting or fleeing”.

According to the Weapons Use Act, a service weapon is permitted in defence of a person to suppress a riot or insurrection, as well as in some instances of arrest or to prevent an escape. And to arrest or prevent the escape of “an insane person who is generally dangerous to the safety of the person or property”.

In any case, whenever the police fire their weapons, the incidents are the subject of internal investigations by the Investigation and Complaints Office for Allegations of Abuse at the Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAK-EBM). The authority will decide whether the case was an instance of self-defence and whether the use of a pistol was justified.

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