Authorities in Berlin arrested 57 people at an anti-Israel rally on Saturday, after a man was assaulted for showing a Star of David and demonstrators chanted antisemitic slogans, threw bottles at officers and displayed terrorist symbols.
“At the corner of Ben-Gurion Street and Potsdamer Street, a man holding a rainbow flag with a Star of David was talking with another person when two men approached, one of whom allegedly punched the man in the head before fleeing the scene,” police said.
Some 10,000 demonstrators participated in the anti-Israeli rally, which coincided with the city’s annual Pride parade, and authorities moved in to disperse the crowd due to “public order disturbances,” including throwing bottles or engaging in physical altercations, AFP reported.
Antisemitic slogans were on display, as well as “symbols of anti-constitutional and terrorist organizations,” police said. “Antisemitic slogans were repeatedly shouted,” prompting several arrests. The officers were pelted with bottles and paint bags, attacked with flagpoles and assaulted, police added.
The demonstration took place as Berlin’s annual Pride parade was being held in another city district, where 64 arrests were also made, for insults, assault and the alleged use of symbols deemed linked to “terrorist organizations,” police also reported.
Twenty people were also arrested at a separate demonstration protesting the Pride march, according to police.
