{"id":385741,"date":"2025-08-30T20:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T20:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/385741\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T20:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T20:29:12","slug":"ambassador-raises-concerns-with-german-authorities-after-irish-protester-assaulted-by-police-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/385741\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador raises concerns with German authorities after Irish protester assaulted by police \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Irish person in Berlin<\/a> has been hospitalised after being physically assaulted and arrested by German<\/a> police during a protest against the killing of journalists<\/a> in Gaza<\/a> by Israeli air strikes. <\/p>\n

The incident has sparked protests in Dublin and Derry City this weekend, with the Irish Ambassador to Germany also raising concerns about the matter with local authorities. <\/p>\n

Video footage of the demonstration seen by The Irish Times shows Dubliner Kitty O\u2019Brien (25) being punched twice in the face by a police officer during a jostle at the front line of the demonstration. <\/p>\n

Speaking in Kerry today, Taoiseach Mich\u00e9al Martin said he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by what he had seen and that such an assault is \u201cunacceptable\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"AA police officer in Berlin punches Dubliner Kitty O\u2019Brien during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Photograph: Irish Bloc Berlin <\/p>\n

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said it is aware of the incident and that officials \u201cstand ready to provide consular assistance\u201d to O\u2019Brien upon request. <\/p>\n

They said the Irish Ambassador to Germany, Maeve Collins, alongside senior officials in the department \u201chave conveyed our concern about the incident to the German authorities\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien attended the pro-Palestinian protest, described as a \u201ccivil disobedience demonstration\u201d as it was not registered with Berlin authorities, on Thursday. It was held in Mitte, central Berlin, not far from the city\u2019s major square Alexanderplatz and the Reichstag government building. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien can be seen first being punched by a police offer at about six seconds in the clip below. <\/p>\n

Kitty O\u2019Brien was punched a number of times in the face by police during a Gaza protest in Berlin. Video: Reuters <\/p>\n

After the assault, O\u2019Brien can be heard telling the police force \u201cyou don\u2019t f**king scare us\u201d and later, with blood running down their face and hands, \u201cthis is on you, there is blood on your hands\u201d. <\/p>\n

They were then detained by police, during which time protest organisers say that O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cright arm was pulled and then twisted with great force, snapping the bone\u201d. <\/p>\n

They were brought to the nearby Charit\u00e9 university hospital and had to undergo significant surgery to correct the bone. They expect to remain in hospital for some days, sources close to O\u2019Brien told The Irish Times. <\/p>\n

Rois\u00edn Clarke, a member of the Irish Bloc Berlin who attended the demonstration alongside O\u2019Brien, described the scenes as chaotic and extremely intense. <\/p>\n

She said the Berlin police conducted a wide operation in advance of the protest. \u201cIt had been advertised online so the police knew about it, the location had to be changed. A lot of police were around the city centre beforehand, checking if people coming out of the train stations were wearing keffiyehs,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Ms Clarke said demonstrators were split on either side of a main street and that police became aggressive as they began pro-Palestinian chants. \u201cThey were telling us to leave and pushing us down the street, but we weren\u2019t actually allowing us to leave because they had sealed off the end of the road with police vans,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She estimated that fewer than 50 people were on their side of the street and said the crowd became disorientated amid the chaos. She lost sight of O\u2019Brien after they were punched and taken from the crowd by police. <\/p>\n

\"KittyKitty O’Brien interacts with a Berlin police officer after being punched in the face. Photograph: Irish Bloc Berlin <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very rare that there isn\u2019t police violence at these demonstrations,\u201d she said, adding that police on Thursday wore riot gear. \u201cWe\u2019re not the ones who start the violence, we don\u2019t stand a chance against them, there\u2019d be no point in even trying.\u201d <\/p>\n

She added that violence at similar protests is typically targeted at Arab teenage boys, teenage girls wearing hijabs and older Arab men. <\/p>\n

A Berlin Police spokesperson on Saturday confirmed the police offences watchdog \u201chas been instructed to review the matter in order to determine whether any aspects of the police response may be disproportionate or of criminal relevance\u201d. <\/p>\n

They said O\u2019Brien \u201crefused to comply and insulted verbally and offended physically several police officers\u201d, alleging that they called police officers \u201cgenocide supporters\u201d and \u201cf**king Nazis\u201d. <\/p>\n

Investigations into both the alleged offence by O\u2019Brien and the issue of police violence remain ongoing, they said. <\/p>\n

They said O\u2019Brien \u201chas been introduced to Berliner Feuerwehr medical service team\u201d.<\/p>\n

The police said of the events on Thursday that \u201ccriminal, forbidden slogans were chanted \u2026 after which around 80 people had to be arrested, locked up and checked\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn total, freedom-restricting measures were taken against 94 people\u201d, with 96 criminal investigations being initiated, although \u201call persons were later released back on the spot after their identities were established\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish person in Berlin has been hospitalised after being physically assaulted and arrested by German police during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2574,2000,299,10982,1824,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-385741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-gaza-strip","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-israel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115119611357543461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}