German-Muslim teens attack Jews

The Associated Press reports:

BERLIN — A Jewish dance group was attacked with stones by a group of children and teenagers during a performance at a street festival in the Germany city of Hannover, police said Thursday. One dancer suffered a leg injury and the group then canceled their performance.

The teenagers also used a megaphone to shout anti-Semitic slurs during the Saturday afternoon attack, Hannover police spokesman Thorsten Schiewe said.

Police said the incident is under investigation and that they do not have an exact number of attackers yet. Schiewe said there were several Muslim immigrant youths among the attackers.

Two suspects, a 14-year-old and a 19-year-old, were being questioned, he said.

Alla Volodarska, whose Progressive Jewish community of Hannover group held the performance, told The Associated Press in an interview that members were still in shock.

"What happened is just so awful," Volodarska said. "The teenagers started throwing stones the moment our dance group was announced, even before they started dancing."

"There were many kids throwing stones, many of them, but we don't know the exact number," she said, adding that the community had performed Israeli group dances at many festivals in the past and never experienced this kind of hostility before.

As many well-meaning people might say, this isn't antisemitism at all (despite the anti-Semitic slurs), but simply valid criticism of Israel and its handling of the flotilla.

Update: Oleh Girl has some more info:

Arab and Turkish ‘youths’ caused a serious anti-Semitic incident last Saturday at a city festival in Hannover. A variety of dance groups and other entertainers (I’ve been to these kinds of festivals in Germany so things like local school gymnastics groups and so forth) took the stage. However, when an Israeli troupe of folk dancers, invited on the behalf of the liberal Jewish community, came on the stage they were attacked by approximately 30 stone-throwing Arabic and Turkish teens between the ages of 12-16 who shouted: “Jews out”. The dancers were forced to flee the stage and one of the dancers was injured with a concussion from the stones thrown.

The teens had come prepared with stones and a mega-phone over which a 16 year old boy repeatedly yelled “Juden Raus” (Jews out) and his cry was joined by the other stone-throwers.

I wonder what reaction Hannover's Jewish community had towards Israel's treatment of the flotilla incident.

In Israel this summer?

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