Berlin police apologizes after official suggests Jews drop religious symbols to avoid anti-Semitic attacks
Tue Apr 23, 3:47 PM ET
BERLIN - Police in Berlin apologized Tuesday for a police official's suggestion on Israeli radio that Jews should stop wearing religious symbols in the German capital to avoid anti-Semitic attacks by Arabs.
The director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial called the suggestion offensive.
"Perhaps the Berlin police have good intentions, but the proposal points to a basic problem in Germany and Europe in general, a lack of will to fight anti-Semitism," Avener Shalev said in Jerusalem.
The Berlin police expressed regret at the suggestion, made by a spokesman identified by Israel's Army Radio as Lars Suenneman.
"The Berlin police expresses its great regret if ill feeling has been caused in Israel or the Jewish community by the official's remarks," a statement said, adding that the official had been speaking hypothetically and that his comments were taken out of context.
The warning was made in the wake of two recent attacks on Jews in Berlin. In both cases, the targets were identified by religious symbols, in one instance a Star of David and in the other a skullcap.
The police statement said the spokesman recognized in the interview that the suggestion would arouse religious sensitivities. "It would be one measure and each must judge for himself whether it is suitable," the official said, according to a transcript of the German-language interview released by police.
The police official's suggestion struck a particularly sensitive chord in Germany, which under the Nazis carried out the Holocaust of 6 million European Jews. Germany's Jewish community has more than tripled to nearly 100,000 in the last five years, largely due to immigration from the former Soviet Union.
The Berlin city government's top security official, Erhart Koerting, issued a statement saying Jewish life must be allowed to "unfold free and unhindered in Berlin."
"It has to be for granted that anyone can display in public symbols of his religious beliefs," Koerting said.
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