BERLIN —Because he was listening to a Hebrew song on his cellphone, a Jewish teen and two of his friends were attacked in Berlin by a group of Arabs, the Bild newspaper reported.
The attack happened at a train station late on Saturday.
According to the report, the Arab assaillants aid they were from the Gaza Strip.
The 17-year-old teen, identified as Jonathan, told the daily Israel Hayom newspaper that he and his two non-Jewish friends, of the same age, were waiting for a train when he played Israeli singer Omer Adam’s hit song ‘Tel Aviv, Ya Habibi, Tel Aviv‘ on his phone.
According to the Israeli teen, the Arab menshouted at him : “Hebrew music? For 70 years you are murdering children. Berlin is our city now and here we don’t listen to fucking Jewish music.”
After pointing out that just as they can play Arabic music he can listen to Israeli music, Jonathan said, he and his friends moved away from the group but they were followed and threatened them : “If I had a knife, I would kill you … ‘’
When the two others tried to intervene on Jonathan’s behalf the group attacked them. One person was hit in the face and another was injured with a broken bottle and required hospital treatment, according to Israel Hayom.
The attack was caught on film by the train station’s security cameras. The police were called to the area but arrived after the attackers fled.
Following a series of anti-Semitic attacks in the last few months, the head of Germany’s Jewish community, Josef Schuster, has made controversial statements when he urged the country’s Jews not to wear kippahs. The call was criticized by European Jewish groups.
One week after the call, thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish people took part in rallies in Berlin and other German cities, all wearing kippahs, to protest against anti-Semitism.