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JEWISH LEADERS HAVE demanded action from Germany to protect the community and face down resurgent right-wing extremism after a deadly anti-Semitic gun attack on the holy day of Yom Kippur yesterday.
At least two people were shot dead in the eastern German city of Halle, with a synagogue among the targets.
The suspect, identified by German media as 27-year-old German Stephan Balliet, filmed the assault and posted the video online.
The rampage was streamed live for 35 minutes on Twitch, and eventually seen by some 2,200 people, the online platform said, in a chilling reminder of the mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand last March which was also online in real-time.
Police subsequently captured the Halle suspect after a gun battle that left him injured.
Chancellor Angela Merkel joined a solidarity vigil at Berlin’s main synagogue yesterday, and firmly condemned the anti-Semitic attack.
But Jewish leaders said that words were not enough, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joining calls for German authorities to “act resolutely against the phenomenon of anti-Semitism”.
The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany crticised the authorities for failing to provide adequate security on such a key day.
“It is scandalous that the synagogue in Halle is not protected by police on a holiday like Yom Kippur,” said Josef Schuster.
“This negligence has now been bitterly repaid.”
Ronald Lauder, who heads the World Jewish Congress, also stressed: “We need action not words” as he called for round-the-0clock security for Jewish sites.
“We also need immediately to launch a unified front against neo-Nazi and other extremist groups, which threaten our well-being.
“The fact that, 75 years after the Holocaust, such groups are gaining influence in Germany speaks volumes.”
’We made it out’
In a copy of a 35-minute video, the gunman filmed himself launching into a diatribe against women and Jews, before carrying out the attack.
The video’s authenticity has been confirmed by the SITE monitoring group but not by police.
The gunman also published an anti-Semitic “manifesto” online more than a week ago, according to SITE director Rita Katz, who said the document showed pictures of the weapons and ammunition he used.
In the video, he was seen trying to force open the synagogue door before shooting dead a female passer-by. He then tried unsuccessfully to blast open the gate of the Jewish cemetery with explosives.
The man was later seen shooting at a patron of a kebab shop about 600 metres away from the synagogue.
Jewish community leader Max Privorotzki, who was in the Halle synagogue, told the Stuttgarter Zeitung of the harrowing minutes as the site came under assault.
“We saw through the camera of our synagogue that a heavily armed perpetrator wearing a steel helmet and rifle was trying to shoot open our door.”
Between 70 and 80 people were in the synagogue then, Privorotzki said.
“We barricaded our doors from inside and waited for the police,” he said, adding that “in between, we carried on with our service.”
Among those in the synagogue were 10 Americans, as well as several Israelis, who had turned up in Halle especially to join the small local population in celebrating Yom Kippur.
“We’ve made it out with our lives, in health and amazing spirits,” wrote Rebecca Blady, a Jewish American community leader, who was in the synagogue.
The owner of the kebab shop, Rifat Tekin, meanwhile described the gunman as “calm like a professional”.
“Maybe he has done this many times. Like me making a kebab, he’s doing this – like a professional.”
‘Like a professional’
Anti-terrorist prosecutors have confirmed that they were taking over the probe given “the particular importance of the case” which involved “violent acts that affect the domestic security of the Federal Republic of Germany”.
Yesterday’s shootings came three months after the shocking assassination-style murder of local pro-migrant politician Walter Luebcke in the western city of Kassel, allegedly by a known neo-Nazi.
Luebcke’s killing has deeply shaken Germany, raising questions about whether it has failed to take seriously a rising threat from right-wing extremists.
Investigators have been probing the extent of suspect Stephan Ernst’s neo-Nazi ties and whether he had links to the far-right militant cell National Socialist Underground (NSU).
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer last month warned of the rising danger of the militant far right, calling it “as big a threat as radical Islamism”.
Ain’t the media great to give these protests wall to wall coverage…
@Derek Durkin: Goddamn media reporting the news, despicable if you ask me.
@Diarmuid Hunt: yeah because that’s how the media works yeah….not too bright are we
@Derek Durkin: I didn’t say they weren’t selective. Nice ad hominem though.
If you choose to chain or glue yourself to objects, you should be left to protest unaided for 24 hours or at least until you toilet yourself.
@Mick Byrne: Do you really give a **** about what you claim to believe in?
@Mick Byrne: You’re only giving them ideas! Dirty protests are not unheard of in this country…
@Mick Byrne: And to ask what toilets do they use or do they tow mobile toilets with them.
Bunch of hypocrites should be all arrested
@Jim O Brien – TechBuzz Ireland: Arrested for protesting? Are you sure about that?
@Shakka1244: they’re breaching the peace so they can be arrested, there is nothing peaceful about pushing through a barricade and chaining yourself to a gate also it’s worth noting that assembly near or at the dail can be controlled or shut down under article 40 of the Constitution. At this stage their numbers are dwindling and they’re getting desperate for media attention, this little stunt just proves it. Sure their little March through Penneys on Mary street completely backfired, there was killings on Twitter because they came across as elitist and snobby.
@Peej: I think you’ll find that many could see that they weren’t elitist or snobby, more highlighting the abhorrent working conditions of the sweatshops used to fund the functioning capitalists who sell such items by mass production, shops like Penney’s capitalize on the detachment of works who are often as young as 12 brought from urban areas to big cities to be exploited for the good of the western consumer, whilst the big chains relish in the reward,.
Get in those lads the council employed . Seemed to work a dream
Arrest them all already. Waste of tax payers money. Right to free protest has long since passed
@Gareth Murran: Are you saying that anyone that protests should be immediately arrested? Since when did we become North Korea?
@Shakka1244: if XR on their manifesto are encouraging civil disobedience and not protests, by its very nature, their intention is to be arrested!! There is a difference between cd and protest.
@Jennifer Hampson: Yep, civil disobedience pretty much guarantees time in custody. It depends on whether enough people think the cause is worth it & if enough do, change will soon follow. Time will tell if they keep it up but if the climate keeps getting worse, it’ll only go one way.
I thought it already was an open house if you were in the know!!!!!!
Ruined a great event for the general public. And now the hippies will wonder why they ain’t getting support? Plant a hemp tree somewhere and smoke it when it finally is big enough.
TD are the one making the issue of carbon with this tax to handle the public deficit . Twenty per cent of that national debt made up of a deal made by a minister with IMF ad EU never laid before the Dail .
When did a minister get authority to treat his deal as law of land without consnet of Dail and Oireachtas ie legislation making deal part of law
and
How can TD vote on estiamte if the Dail has no control over what in kitty to spend whihc it does not until that deal laid beofe it by min?
Commission can serve notice on ireland to reduce that deficit (64.8 per cent in excess of the 60 per cent threshold under the Fiscal Compact Treaty per ntma report at end of 18 with loan of 44 billion from eu and uk ) as an DEBTOR to EU ??
TD complaining about not enuf spend are only putting us into deeper debt and only DAIL can change situation by TD having minister LAY that EU/IMF deal before the dail that will reduce deficit until DAIL approves terms by voting thru legislation making it part of law of state. Term that public spending complies with deficit rule but also public funds will cap bank cos share value fall cos of ECB policit we have no control over.
Minister have to acknowledge a debt cos min signed loan agreement .
But TD seem to want to have cake and eat it want to complain about govt , overspending or underspending but not taking control of the fund but seem to have no problem voting thru these estimate . Think it will carry on until voter tell local TD .. hey why isnt that deal before Dail? We elect U to be responsible for whats in kitty to spend not minister ?
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