Berlin police have opened an internal investigation after videos emerged showing an Irish activist at a pro-Palestinian demonstration being punched in the face twice by an officer, drawing protest from Ireland\u2019s foreign office.<\/p>\n
Footage posted on social media showed the activist, Kitty O\u2019Brien, being struck by a male police officer and dragged away, their face bloodied, from the rally on Thursday in the Mitte district of the German capital.<\/p>\n
The local newspaper Der Tagesspiegel said O\u2019Brien\u2019s arm was also broken at the demonstration but this could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n
A longer video published online shows a person resembling O\u2019Brien, who uses non-binary pronouns, shouting insults including \u201cfucking genocide supporter\u201d and \u201cyou\u2019re acting like a fucking Nazi\u201d at police. One of the officers then appears to strike them in the face twice. It is unclear from the footage whether the police officer intentionally targeted O\u2019Brien\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
A Berlin police spokesperson confirmed that authorities were aware of the incident and said the officer had been identified.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe as the Berlin police are reviewing whether the officer acted proportionately, and we\u2019re doing it as part of a criminal investigation on suspicion of bodily harm on duty,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien was treated by the Berlin fire brigade for unspecified injuries, police said. The activist is being investigated for insulting and resisting law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear whether O\u2019Brien had filed a complaint against the officer.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s department of foreign affairs said senior officials and its ambassador to Germany<\/a>, Maeve Collins, had conveyed \u201cconcern\u201d to German authorities about the incident.<\/p>\n Zo\u00eb Lawlor, the chair of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said the video footage obliged the Irish government to take action. \u201cThey had to take it seriously. It was two very violent assaults \u2026 It\u2019s shocking. The German police are just horrendous when it comes to Palestine activism.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawlor said a fundraiser had been launched for O\u2019Brien. \u201cI understand they are still in hospital and will be out of work for a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Activists protested outside the German embassy in Dublin on Saturday. Catherine Stocker, a councillor with the Social Democrats and an aunt of O\u2019Brien, said injuries included a broken arm and nerve damage.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you have here is a bunch of mostly young Irish people standing up for international law and standing up for the people of Gaza and Palestine, which has effectively been made illegal to do in Berlin at this stage,\u201d she told<\/a> RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n Stocker urged the Irish government to tell the German authorities that the police behaviour was \u201ccompletely outside the bounds of democratic practice\u201d.<\/p>\n The German foreign ministry declined to comment.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A number of pro-Palestinian groups including Irish Bloc Berlin, which calls itself a \u201cplatform for Irish solidarity with Palestine\u201d, had organised the protest against Israel over the killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Berlin police, several hundred officers were dispatched to the commercial zone around Hackescher Markt<\/a> regarding an unauthorised \u201cgathering in the context of the Middle East conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n About 100 people were marching \u201cback and forth\u201d on Rosenthaler Stra\u00dfe in the Mitte district, with some participants reported as \u201cverbally aggressive\u201d toward police.<\/p>\n \u201cAs there was no apparent leader of the gathering, the crowd was ordered to disperse,\u201d police said in a statement, adding that demonstrators had chanted unspecified \u201ccriminal, prohibited slogans\u201d. Media reports said \u201cYallah, yallah intifada\u201d and \u201cFrom the river to the sea\u201d were heard. Last year a Berlin court convicted an activist<\/a> for leading a chant using the latter phrase four days after the Hamas attacks<\/a> on Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the operation, there were insults, physical attacks and acts of resistance against police officers,\u201d the police added.<\/p>\n Officers temporarily detained 94 people and police initiated 96 criminal investigations on suspicion of acts including \u201cusing symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations, attacks on law enforcement officers, insulting behaviour and bodily harm\u201d.<\/p>\n Clashes between police and demonstrators at pro-Palestinian rallies are a common occurrence in Berlin, where local authorities have accused activists of creating an \u201caggressive atmosphere\u201d and accosting police.<\/p>\n However participants and observers have repeatedly reported what they have called excessive and unprovoked attacks by police against pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the German capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berlin police have opened an internal investigation after videos emerged showing an Irish activist at a pro-Palestinian demonstration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-389735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115130165160012146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389735","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=389735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}