Members of Germany’s Jewish community were attacked with red paint while hosting an event on Friday evening in Gruneburgpark to commemorate the remaining 50 hostages being held by Hamas, according to German media reports.
While placing photos of the 50 hostages on posts at the park, masked attackers reportedly sprayed the people attending the event with red paint.
Sacha Stawski, the president of Honestly Concerned, an organization combating antisemitism, told Bild that he saw a masked woman spray two tubes of paint on multiple men, including himself.
“The paint also poured over my glasses, making it difficult for me to recognize the perpetrator,” he said.
“We had previously been in the park for a cross-party walkabout organized by the local CDU [Christian Democratic Union] chapter,” Stawski said, speaking about a previous incident. “We were repeatedly pushed aside and prevented from leaving by a group of about 20 to 30 people, some of them masked. A man who was there with his son called the police.”
Pro-Palestinian encampment
The park housed a pro-Palestinian encampment, according to Tagesschau.
Camp spokesperson Sebastian Blessing told the site he was unaware of the incident and claimed, “We continue to have no problem showing solidarity with the Gaza hostages. But we also don’t understand why our event is repeatedly disrupted.”
Blessing claimed that two people from the camp had been physically attacked over the past week.