Arabs in Berlin hate Jews — who could have guessed?

Many thanks to Nash Montana for translating this report from Der Spiegel, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

0:00 A small truck that is being steered

0:03 into a group of people on purpose.

0:06 These are the kinds of catastrophes that no one here can or wants to get used to.

0:09 Good evening and welcome to SPIEGEL TV.

0:12 Also it appears unacceptable to me, the fact that

0:15 there are people here in Germany who are berated as s**t Jews,

0:18 or who become victims of racist attacks.

0:21 And the attackers aren’t just some brain-fried

0:24 Neo-Nazis, but apparently just as brain-fried

0:27 Arab anti-Semites.

0:31 At some Berlin schools in the meantime the sentiments

0:34 among the various cultures have become so chilly,

0:37 just like the sentiments between Israel and Palestine,

0:40 when the Jewish student becomes the enemy of an entire class.

0:43 Anna Sadovnikova, Roman Leber and Klaus Meier-Heuer

0:46 spoke to both sides.

0:49 The Rückert family celebrates the Sabbath strictly

0:52 behind closed doors. They don’t show their

0:55 religion any longer in public.

1:12 Liam, the youngest of the two brothers, had to learn

1:15 that in the midst of Berlin, the word ‘Jew’ has become an expletive.

1:18 Seven decades after the end of WW2.

1:21 It all started once he switched schools.

1:24 In the beginning, when I went to class,

1:27 actually on the third day,

1:30 our substitute teacher brought up the topic of anti-Semitism,

1:33 and then a lot of other students said that

1:36 if there was a Jew in the classroom,

1:39 they would murder him.

1:42 That’s when I realized that I couldn’t tell anyone that I was Jewish.

1:45 So I said that I was from Israel,

1:48 and one of them called me a s**t Israeli, and

1:51 the other one called me a s**t Jew,

1:54 because of course he assumed that all Israelis are Jewish.

1:57 That’s just how they all think there.

2:00 And now they’ll all see that I’m Jewish.

2:03 At that moment, a lot changed for Liam.

2:06 Israel, the birthplace of his mother,

2:09 is the land of the enemy in the eyes of his peers.

2:12 The boy who once proudly celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at 13 years old

2:15 suddenly became an outsider, one who didn’t

2:18 even dare to go outside anymore, in his own city.

2:21 He flat-out refused to go to school, he just quit going.

2:24 He missed 40 days. He’d ride there, sometimes I drove him myself,

2:27 but he would just not go inside, and…

2:30 but I didn’t even know about it,

2:33 all because he was avoiding his class.

2:39 70% of the students were either Arab

2:42 or Polish,

2:45 yeah, actually only either Arab or Polish.

2:48 Or Turkish, and uh…

2:51 the rest were German, or something else…

2:54 Arab anti-Semitism in the heart of Berlin?

2:57 In search of answers,

3:00 we drive to the neighborhood Berlin-Neukölln

3:03 to visit the Al-Nur Mosque.

3:06 Similar to Jewish tradition, prayers also take place on Friday.

3:09 Hello, can we ask you a question?

3:12 We’re working on a report about the relationship between

3:15 Jewish and Arab people here… —No, about that, we don’t feel like it.

3:18 We don’t want to be talked to about that.

3:21 It is said that Jewish children are being harassed at schools.

3:24 That’s not true, who… where are there even Jewish kids

3:27 at normal schools? They’re all hidden in synagogues or wherever!

3:30 No, there are normal Jewish kids learning at regular schools.

3:33 I’ve never gotten to know one; I’ve never seen any Jewish kids at a normal school.

3:36 But there are newspaper articles about how Jewish children are bullied at schools.

3:39 We have nothing to do with that.

3:42 May we ask you a question? —Yeah, here, no go, you can’t read, for the tenth time,

3:45 why have you come back here again?!

3:48 The other street is better, here forbidden, do you understand?

3:51 Ten times you asked! Why you ask same question here! Go away! Turn off camera!

3:55 The Sonnenallee. Almost all stores here are in Arab hands.

3:59 The migrant ratio at some schools here is over 80%.

4:03 The central council of Jews calls this a no-go area.

4:06 Open discussion is not wanted around here,

4:09 only covertly.

4:12 Jewish children at schools are bullied,

4:15 and uh… I have experienced it like that in any case,

4:18 that if someone knows that a child is a Jew,

4:21 he will be bullied.

4:24 But one has to also say that if someone

4:27 is not a Jew, and he is a backstabber [traitor]

4:30 then we also say “you Jew!”

4:33 The Jews… they like the money,

4:36 and the power,

4:39 and we on the other hand don’t like

4:42 the people who like money and power.

4:45 But these are prejudices, I mean

4:48 not all Jewish people can be rich and powerful.

4:51 Those are prejudices, but like I said, what is shown on TV,

4:54 and in movies, that is how we soak it up.

4:57 At the central relief office for Jews, Marina Chernivsky

5:00 is like the archivist for this new anti-Semitism.

5:03 The flood of reported incidents

5:06 fills entire folders.

5:09 For instance, a teacher, Frau A.,

5:12 reports of new conflicts between a group of students

5:15 in the 8th grade, where a female student described

5:18 the Shoah, the Holocaust, as correct, and she was harassed

5:21 and the school did nothing to stop this.

5:24 It’s a climate in which even the word “Jew”

5:27 has become a natural insult.

5:30 I already knew that this word had become a common cussword,

5:33 but I’d never heard it used like that before. To hear this with my own ears

5:36 was paralyzing. To imagine that my very own son

5:39 could be confronted like this at his school made me feel deeply unsettled.

5:42 This is just one experience that we hear very often,

5:45 and especially in schools where the word “Jew” frequently

5:48 circulates as an insult while remaining unopposed.

5:51 There is a general assumption going around;

5:54 this isn’t really hitting anyone in particular.

5:57 Jewish students aren’t there; therefore it just slides through.

6:00 Chernivsky tries to use education to deal with the anger.

6:03 but with each conflict in the Middle East it becomes more difficult.

6:06 Anti-Semitism has always been a trigger, an outlet,

6:09 and it’s going to keep being that,

6:12 each escalation in the Middle East, each action,

6:15 political… each political…

6:18 tension…

6:21 Israel and the Middle East, Syria,

6:24 wherever, they all contribute

6:27 to the incidents here in our schools getting worse and worse.

6:30 Sigmount Königsberg, too, can hardly rest anymore.

6:33 Actually he is a commissioner against anti-Semitism, but lately he feels more like

6:37 a security expert.

6:40 I would not recommend to anyone that

6:43 they get on the subway in Berlin wearing the star of David.

6:46 That goes for the entire city of Berlin.

6:49 Or just walk through Berlin wearing the kippah;

6:52 I strongly advise not to do that. — Why?

6:55 I do not recommend that because the… uh…

6:58 one’s physical integrity cannot be guaranteed.

7:01 A drive into the Ruhr area.

7:04 Since the wave of refugees began, the number of

7:07 Arabic migrants has grown very rapidly here.

7:10 In the city district Alten-Essen, the owner

7:13 of a Lebanese snack stand allows us

7:16 to talk with guests and employees.

7:19 Mahana Kamil lost relatives in Lebanon

7:22 due to Israeli air strikes. Since then, the Jews are the enemy.

7:25 Those in Israel anyway. He’s got nothing against Jews in Germany.

7:28 May we show you this video,

7:31 this happened a few months ago in Stuttgart, at a demonstration.

7:34 I think that’s good, yes, all Arabs must be like that.

7:37 But especially here in Germany, we have

7:40 a special kind of responsibility towards our

7:43 fellow Jewish citizens, to let something like this happen…

7:46 Look, look at… Hitler, what did he do Jews,

7:49 do you know that, are you German?

7:52 Do you think that was good?

7:55 I don’t find that good, but with such people you just have to do like that.

7:58 Hitler has said, I let a few people, Jews, live, and …

8:01 then they know why I, these people,

8:04 why I “fired” them,

8:07 why I have killed them.

8:10 And he was right, I believe.

8:13 These people want to have everything, all of them,

8:16 they want everything, all things.

8:19 They leave nothing for other people. —The Jews? —Jews, exactly!

8:22 And yes, that is right. It is correct.

8:25 Our Imam [imam name in Arabic] has said

8:28 Israel is a big mistake.

8:31 It must — it’s like a cancer, and when you don’t make cancer go away,

8:34 then it stays in your head and in your body and so on.

8:37 Yeah, and so that is.

8:40 Not everybody thinks like that, with some the resentment against the Jews sounds

8:43 almost diplomatic. Almost. When they say, the Jews, they’re attacked in school

8:47 or by the kids or whatever, that is right, but what do Jews do

8:50 with all those other people, the Palestinians,

8:53 and so on, that is their kids

8:56 who die every day routinely.

8:59 Who gives them the right? No one.

9:02 Is that justice? That is not justice either.

9:05 I too am against when a person attacks a Jew or a child,

9:08 or whatever. I am not in agreement with that, either.

9:11 They are humans, too.

9:14 They believe differently, they have a different religion,

9:17 that is true, but…

9:20 what should I say; that is normal, right?

9:24 What is normal for some, is unbearable for the Rückert family.

9:27 The fact that their religion could put them in danger,

9:30 is something they’d never even thought possible.

9:34 We are afraid, of course. Things come up in me —

9:37 things come up in me,

9:40 like back in the times of my parents…

9:43 you hear such things…,

9:46 s**t Jew, filthy Jew. We are in the year 2018;

9:49 something like that shouldn’t even be happening anymore.

9:52 Liam wants to emigrate to Israel now.

9:55 There, he wants to go to a boarding school.