Berlin attack denounced

Merkel vows to quash rising anti-Semitism in Germany after duo in skullcaps are targeted.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday sharply condemned a street assault in Berlin on two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps that has stoked the debate about anti-Semitism in the country.

In a surprising twist, however, one victim, who identified himself on Israeli television as Adam Armoush, later told German TV that he wasn’t Jewish but was an Israeli from an Arab family.

Armoush told Deutsche Welle Television that he wore the skullcap to make a point to a friend who said it was risky to do so in Germany.

“I was saying it’s really safe and I wanted to prove it, but it ended like that,” he said.

Regardless of Armoush’s intention, it comes at a time of increased fears of antiSemitism and indications that attacks against Jews are on the rise.

A video of the attack Tuesday showing Armoush being whipped with a belt quickly went viral with people assuming that he was Jewish.

Merkel called the attack in the city’s trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood “a very horrible incident” and vowed the government would respond “with full force and resolve” against growing anti-Semitism in Germany.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that “Jews shall never again feel threatened here.”

“It’s our responsibility to protect Jewish life here,” he wrote in reference to the killing of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis in the Holocaust more than 70 years ago.

Berlin police said the two men with the skullcaps were 21 and 24 years old, but didn’t identify them.

The video doesn’t show the outbreak of the fight or how it started, but Armoush told Israeli Kan TV that he was leaving his home when the three people started cursing at them.

“They kept cursing us and my friend asked them to stop cursing,” Armoush told Kan in Hebrew. “They started to get angry and one of them ran to me and I knew it was important to film it because there would be no way to catch him by the time police arrived.”

Police said they are still looking for the attackers.

Two Jewish organizations posted the video, which showed a young man attacking Armoush while yelling “Yahudi!” or “Jew” in Arabic.

The head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, demanded punishment for the perpetrators, tweeting that “it makes me angry to see such violence full of hatred.”

“There’s anti-Semitism among German citizens, unfortunately, and also antiSemitism from the Arabicspeaking region and the government will do everything” against it, Merkel told reporters.

Armoush didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.

The RIAS group said Berlin saw 947 anti-Semitic incidents last year.

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise across Germany. Several Jewish students have reported antiSemitic bullying in schools in recent months, and Israeli flags were burned during a recent protest in Berlin.

This month, Germany appointed a diplomat to coordinate government activities against anti-Semitism.