A woman was assaulted in the southwestern German city of Heidelberg last week for wearing a “Bring them home now” T-shirt in support of the Israelis held captive in Gaza.
The attack came the same week that a gunman opened fire near the Israeli consulate in Munich on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and was killed by police.
The couple was assaulted on Monday evening by a 29-year-old man as they were walking outside in the university town, according to images captured on CCTV.
The attacker grabbed the woman by the T-shirt, demanding she take it off, lightly injuring her, local media reported. When her husband tried to help his wife, the attacker punched him several times in the face, reportedly knocking out a tooth before fleeing the scene.
The attacker later posted about the incident on Instagram.
The Muslim suspect, who was arrested on Thursday evening in a nearby city where he lives, is a German national whose parents are from Lebanon.
He remains under arrest this weekend after failing to post a €10,000 bail.
The suspect told police that he was “bothered” by the woman’s T-shirt.
The German embassy in Tel Aviv did not immediately return calls for comment over the weekend.
An Israeli who lives in Germany and runs a restaurant in a nearby city told JNS on Sunday that she had previously gotten a restraining order from police against the suspect after he sold drugs to clientele and refused to pay for services.
“After that he got more aggressive, threatened me and called me a ‘dirty Jew,’” Iris Haas said.
