Berlin-Neukölln: Anti-Israel posters surfaced – police investigate for incitement to hatred

Zoom Image

Palestinian flag on a house wall in Berlin-Neukölln

Photo: Fabian Sommer / dpa

A series of anti-Israel posters are occupying the authorities in Berlin's Neukölln district. As the police announced, the responsible state security had taken over the investigations for incitement to hatred and damage to property.

"We were informed about the posters on Friday," said the spokesman for the district office, Christian Berg, the dpa news agency. "We're assuming they were hung sometime in the middle of last week, but we can't say how many there were." On Friday, he counted only two, as well as graffiti in the Palestinian colors on five or six trees, Berg said. According to its own information, the district office also had photos of other posters.

According to a report in the B.Z., the Palestinian network Samidoun is said to have asked for support from prisoners and so-called martyrs on the posters. Other posters approved rocket attacks on Israel, according to the Neukölln district office.

According to its own statements, the German-Israel Society (DIG) filed a complaint for supporting terrorism and is calling for a ban on Samidoun's association. DIG President Volker Beck said: "If the sentence: 'There is no place for anti-Semitism in Germany' is to have any meaning, there can be no place for an organization like Samidoun in Germany."

Israel's ambassador compares Neukölln to Gaza

Israel's Ambassador Ron Prosor commented on Twitter. "When I arrived here almost a year ago, I didn't expect the streets of Neukölln to resemble those of Gaza," he wrote. "This terror propaganda in the heart of Berlin is a disgrace." The perpetrators should be punished.

Spokesman Berg said that Samidoun propaganda had been increasingly noticeable for several weeks. "We know that this is a very small group that is specifically trying to appeal to young people." Neukölln's district mayor Martin Hikel (SPD) said, according to the "B.Z.", that the "anti-Semitic agitation" of Samidoun stirred up hatred and endangered social peace in Neukölln.

According to security circles, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers the Palestinian network to be hostile to Israel and close to the radical Palestinian organization PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).

fek/dpa