Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

83-Year-Old Attacked at German Pro-Israel March

Members of a German pro-Israel group were injured in an attack while demonstrating solidarity with three Israeli teens kidnapped in the West Bank.

A complaint was lodged with local police.

The incident took place at a national “Bring Back Our Boys” rally in Hamburg on June 19, organized by the Young Forum of the German-Israel Society and the Hamburg for Israel network, the Juedische Allgemeine, Germany’s main Jewish newspaper, reported Monday.

A counter-demonstrator reportedly threw an 83-year-old man to the ground. The man’s daughter was assaulted physically and verbally while trying to protect him. The man was treated in the hospital for a head wound.

The counter-demonstration reportedly was organized by the German branch of the anti-globalization ATTAC group. Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the Allgemeine he was shocked and extremely worried that “this kind of pure hatred against Israel not only exists in Germany but is expressed in violent assaults.”

He said he counted on local authorities to “quickly apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

Ina Dinslage, spokesperson for the young forum in Hamburg, told the Allgemeine she was shocked at the attack. “We wanted to show our solidarity with the kidnapped teens,” she said.

Graumann said he hoped for more such demonstrations for democracy and peace, “values that Israel has always stood for.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.