Berlin: woman attacked after speaking Hebrew

BERLIN – A serious anti-Semitic assault took place in Berlin last week, when an Israeli medical student was attacked at night by a group of young women after they heard her talking in Hebrew on her mobile phone. The Israeli woman was beaten and wounded.

The incident happened last week after the 26 year-old student attended a party at the house of friends in the Steglitz neighborhood in south-west Berlin, where a large Muslim community resides. At about 2 a.m., the woman, who holds a dual Israeli-German citizenship, decided to walk back to her apartment after she missed the last bus home, Israel's leading daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

While she was walking home and holding a conversation in Hebrew with a friend from Israel on her cellular phone, the student passed by a group of young women.

When they recognized the language the student was speaking as Hebrew, one of the girls suddenly walked up to the Israeli woman and slapped her in the face. The other women then joined in, pulled her hair, beat her up and kicked her. The abuse eventually stopped when the attackers thought they heard a police car approaching, and they fled the scene.

The student, who sustained injuries in the attack, received medical treatment and filed a complaint with the police.

The women's identity has not been established thus far, but they were apparently Muslim.

This recent incident is the first anti-Semitic crime to be registered in the German capital in over a year. Ever since the beginning of the second intifada, there have been many cases in which Jews and Israelis suffered attacks, usually at the hands of young Arabs or Turks. The German police have failed to apprehend any of the assailants until now.


Source: Ynet (English)

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