Was a woman beaten just for speaking Hebrew? The 54-year-old Osnat from Tel Aviv assumes that. The Israeli was visiting Berlin with her husband.
By K Metag, M Marburg and C Weeg
In the Israeli news portal “Walla” she reports on a brutal attack. Accordingly, the couple was on Monday afternoon at the Berlin Zoo station.
Osnat: “My husband and I wanted to go shopping again on the last day of our eight-day trip. We were looking for a very specific business. I stopped and checked my phone. Suddenly, a man comes from the front – or from the side – and, without warning, hits me in the face with his fist.”
Photos show massive bruises on the woman’s face. She believes the attacker struck for a harrowing reason. “When I reconstruct the situation, he heard me speaking Hebrew and waited for my husband to move a little away. That is my feeling. What other reason could he have had?”
She rules out that the brutal thug was a robber. “I was holding an iPhone 13 and he didn’t take it. It was a man, around 25 to 30 years old, wearing a face mask.”
And further: “It was definitely an anti-Semitic attack! He wanted to hurt Jews or Israelis.”
State protection determined against unknown thugs
Osmat went to the police and reported the attack there. When asked by the BZ, the Berlin police confirmed the incident. Also, a charge of assault was filed. State security is currently clarifying whether the attack should be classified as anti-Semitic, a spokesman said.
The injured woman flew back to Tel Aviv the day after the attack and was treated at the hospital. Doctors found that her nose was broken.
If the man actually struck out of hatred of Jews, the case would be further sad evidence of growing anti-Semitism in Germany.