{"id":31362,"date":"2025-08-29T19:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T19:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/31362\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T19:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T19:10:08","slug":"irish-protester-repeatedly-punched-in-the-face-by-police-during-gaza-protest-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/31362\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish protester \u2018repeatedly punched in the face by police\u2019 during Gaza protest in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incident took place on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A series of videos posted by IrishBlocBerlin on Instagram show Kitty O\u2019Brien clutching their nose before lifting their bloodied hands to German police while shouting: \u201cTheir blood is on your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The footage then shows the activist being dragged from the crowd by two police officers.<\/p>\n

Berlin police have been accused of \u201cbrutalising and leaving an Irish activist bloodied\u201d, with the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign group describing the officers\u2019 actions as \u201cindefensible\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the latest shameful incident in a laundry list of brutal attacks on peaceful Palestine protesters,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGermany is broadcasting to the world their complicity in genocide in both word and deed. Kitty was simply protesting and doing their duty in upholding international law, an obligation that the German state repeatedly chooses to ignore.<\/p>\n

\u201cGermany must reckon with the fact that providing political and material support for an ongoing genocide does not lessen their culpability for the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe demand immediate action from our Government to intervene on Kitty\u2019s behalf, and on behalf of all who continue to suffer police brutality for taking a stand against genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Polizei Berlin said in a statement it has reported the incident to its police watchdog.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring a violent demonstration in Berlin-Mitte, a demonstrator of foreign descent was taken into custody\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The statement added that, \u201cdespite repeated orders\u201d to leave the area, O\u2019Brien \u201crefused to comply and insulted verbally and offended physically, several police officers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers were compelled to use immediate force, including selected targeted strikes, to overcome the resistance and carry out the arrest,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is clear evidence for verbal insults shouted by this individual, ranging from calling officers \u2018genocide supporters\u2019, \u2018f**king Nazis\u2019 and \u2018you should be ashamed of yourselves \u2013 there are babies starving\u2019 among many more statements made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kitty<\/p>\n

Kitty O’Brien being arrested by German police. Photo: Irish Bloc Berlin\/Caoimhe McAlister<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Friday, August 29<\/p>\n

The Berlin police added that \u201cthe individual has been introduced to Berliner Feuerwehr [fire brigade] medical service team\u201d and said \u201cinvestigations are ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Affairs said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of reports of the incident in question and stands ready to provide consular assistance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The incident took place on Thursday. A series of videos posted by IrishBlocBerlin on Instagram show Kitty O\u2019Brien…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,68,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-31362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gaza","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}