Syrian convicted of Berlin assault on Israeli wearing Kippa

BERLIN: A German court convicted a young Syrian man on assault charges for lashing out with his belt at an Israeli man wearing a Jewish Kippa skullcap.

Knaan al- Sebai, 19, was sentenced to four weeks’ juvenile detention for the assault and insulting speech, but was allowed to walk free, having already served over two months in pretrail detention.

The judge also ordered Sebai to visit an exhibition near Berlin on the Wannsee Conference, where the Nazis planned the Holocaust, “to get an idea of the values we share in Germany” as a result of the country’s dark past.

“I made a mistake and I have learnt from it,” Sebai told the Berlin court, after earlier denying the April 17 attack was motivated by anti- Semitism and testifying that he had been under the influence of drugs.

A video of the street assault, filmed by the victim on his smartphone, had sparked widespread public revulsion as it spread on social media, and triggered street rallies in solidarity with Jews.

The footage shows the attacker, one of a group of three, shouting ‘yahudi’ – Jew in Arabic – before striking the victim, leaving him injured.

The victim, a 21-year- old veterinary student, later revealed that he is not Jewish but an Israeli Arab called Adam, who was walking at the time with a German-Moroccan friend aged 24.

The attack was the latest to raise alarm bells about renewed antiSemitism in Germany from both the far-right and a large influx of predominantly Muslim asylum seekers since 2015. — AFP