Anti-Semitism is still alive and well in Berlin, despite the best efforts of the German government to fight it.
An Israeli reporter was the target of a vicious anti-Semitic attack Monday evening in Berlin while trying to file a video report for Israel’s Hebrew-language Kan public television network.
האמת שבסך הכל עבר עלי יום נחמד בעבודה. היו לי כמה מרואיינים מדהימים שאני כבר ממש משתוקקת שתראו בסדרת כתבות שתעלה בקרוב. בין מרואיין אחד לשני הייתי צריכה לעצור לרגע כדי לדווח על הסכם הברקזיט המתגבש. אבל מתברר שבשכונת נויקלן בברלין אי אפשר לדווח בעברית מבלי שיפריעו ויזרקו עליך נפץ pic.twitter.com/1TKJqora5b
— Antonia Yamin (@antonia_yamin)
“I just had a nice day at work,” wrote Antonia Yamin, the Europe Correspondent for Kan, the Israeli public broadcasting network, in a post on the Twitter social networking site.
“I had some amazing interviewees that I really longed to see in a series of articles to be published soon.
In between interviews, however, she had to pause for a moment to report on an emerging story — “but it turns out that in the Neukölln neighborhood of Berlin,” she said, “it’s impossible to report in Hebrew without being disturbed by explosives being thrown at you.”
In the above clip which her photographer fortunately continued to film, one sees that not only was Yamin physically harassed by at least one passerby, but a live, flaming firecracker was also thrown at her.
Wisely, she quickly removed herself, and none too soon; within seconds, the firecracker exploded.
In this case, she was nimble enough, and fast enough, to get out of the way in time to evade the attack.
But what if she hadn’t been able to?
Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted in remarks at a Berlin synagogue during an event to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, that she is seeing a “worrying anti-Semitism that threatens Jewish life in our country.”
It’s not the first time Merkel has expressed concerns about rising anti-Semitism in Germany.
Speaking in an April interview with Israel’s Channel 10 television news, she vowed to do everything possible to ensure the safety of Jews in Germany.
“We have refugees now, for example, or people of Arab origin, who bring a different type of anti-Semitism into the country,” Merkel said. “But unfortunately, anti-Semitism existed before this.”
According to the Department for Research and Information on Anti-Semitism, a Berlin-based NGO, the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose by 55 percent in 2017. German police statistics indicate at least 1,421 anti-Semitic crimes were committed that year, including at least 32 violent crimes, according to NBC News. In 2016, 1,434 anti-Semitic crimes were committed. One year earlier, the figure was 1,330.
“The fact that no kindergarten, no school, no synagogue can be left without police protection dismays us,” Merkel told Channel 10 news.