An Israeli journalist was recently attacked in Berlin while trying to film a report, with video capturing a group of men harassing her and then apparently attacking her with a firecracker.
Antonia Yamin was preparing to broadcast live on the street, and was speaking Hebrew, when the men came up from behind her, with one reaching out a hand to interrupt her.
Then, as they continued walking, they tossed a lit firework at the shaken reporter.
The four youths, described in German newspaper Bild as having a ‘migrant background’, are said to have run away to a nearby underground station.
A video of the incident was published on Twitter by Yamin on Sunday, Europe correspondent for Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
האמת שבסך הכל עבר עלי יום נחמד בעבודה. היו לי כמה מרואיינים מדהימים שאני כבר ממש משתוקקת שתראו בסדרת כתבות שתעלה בקרוב. בין מרואיין אחד לשני הייתי צריכה לעצור לרגע כדי לדווח על הסכם הברקזיט המתגבש. אבל מתברר שבשכונת נויקלן בברלין אי אפשר לדווח בעברית מבלי שיפריעו ויזרקו עליך נפץ pic.twitter.com/1TKJqora5b
— Antonia Yamin (@antonia_yamin) November 25, 2018
Yamin was born in Mannheim to a German Christian mother and an Israeli father, and has lived in Israel since childhood.
The attack occurred in Neukölln, one of Berlin’s 12 boroughs, and is known to have one of the highest percentage of immigrants in the German capital, although it has undergone rapid gentrification in recent years.
Yamin later tweeted that she had been asked by police to give a statement but was hesitating to label the attack as anti-Semitic.
Speaking to Bild, Yamin suggested she was targeted because she was speaking Hebrew and had Hebrew writing on her microphone, although she said she did not know definitively if that was the reason for the attack.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas condemned the attack:
“The assault against journalist Antonia Yamin is not acceptable,” Maas wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “That an Israeli reporter cannot report undisturbed in Hebrew from some places must not be allowed. In Germany, journalists must be able to work safely – in no matter what language.”
Germany was shocked by a case of anti-Semitism in April involving a Syrian migrant who assaulted a man wearing a Yamulka with his. A video of the street street assault went viral and sparked widespread public revulsion, and triggered large street rallies in solidarity with Jews.
In July, dozens of Jewish organizations in Germany called on the government to crack down on anti-Semitism following a string of anti-Jewish attacks, perpetrated by Muslim immigrants and by people identifying with the far-right.
1/ אמיר ואני יצאנו עכשיו מהמשטרה (די מפתיע אבל הם התקשרו אלינו וביקשו שנגיע ונמסור עדות). אנחנו מקווים כי המשטרה תצליח לתפוס את הצעירים שזרקו עלינו את הנפץ. רוצה לשבח את הקולגות שלי בגרמניה שדיווחו על המקרה באופן רציני מאד בכל העיתונים החשובים במדינה. pic.twitter.com/meb06D8paq
— Antonia Yamin (@antonia_yamin) November 26, 2018
3/ I take the subject very seriously. I do not know for certain why the young men threw the firecracker. I can only talk about facts and they are: I spoke Hebrew while reporting on the street, my microphone has the name of my channel written on it in big Hebrew letters
— Antonia Yamin (@antonia_yamin) November 26, 2018
5/ behave as if the street is theirs and this is not okay! I (even though half German) know that I am a "guest" in this country and that is why I often set myself higher standards of behavior – because that's what guests in a country are supposed to do.
— Antonia Yamin (@antonia_yamin) November 26, 2018
Thank you foreign minister @HeikoMaas for the kind words. What happened will not change the special place I have for Germany in my heart ❤️ 🇩🇪🇮🇱 https://t.co/4eBH1W7gls
— Antonia Yamin (@antonia_yamin) November 27, 2018
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7 Responses
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Sorry, i don’t see why we make such a big story about this incident. It’s nothing new, that the goyim don’t like us. Why don’t we learn a lesson and stop reporting in hebrew, in sensitive areas. Lets be discreet and not report in hebrew, in Berlin, in gthe middle of then night !!!!!!!!!
If halachically, she is not Jewish, can the incident still be called anit-semitic?
ril
November 27, 2018 1:32 pm at 1:32 pm
If halachically, she is not Jewish, can the incident still be called anit-semitic?
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Are u asking a hypothetical question or a factual question
1. Germany, like many other Northern European countries has issues with migrants with nothing else to do but get up to no good. Mischief making mostly but tiresome and irritating to those on the receiving end.
2. This goyim, myself specifically, likes you just fine.. even if you do insist on referring to me as a goy.
3. You cannot let yourself be pushed around to the point of discreetly cowering in a corner. Antonia Yamin was doing her job as a reporter, she owes no one an explanation of how she and her camera people execute the doing of that job. Time zone differences may explain why they film late into the night.
4. It is patently absurd to censor yourself from speaking Hebrew in public places for fear a street rat hoodlum might take exception and get all snarfy about it. Speak what you speak and speak it with pride. Everyone else speaks in whatever language they feel like speaking, Hebrew is no less than the others, a method of communicating.
5. It shouldn’t matter whether or not she is Halachially Jewish. If this group of street rats was just out because they were bored and bratty then they’re just bored brats with nothing better to do than make a public pain out of themselves. But if their behavior was motivated by the perception that Antonia was Jewish then it was anti-semitic. They were getting their laughs and giggles by harassing a young woman they thought to be Jewish. Anti-Semitic.
Mariana Santos.
Just to clear up point 2. the word goyim [גוים] translates as Nations. Jews are technically speaking a goy. [גוי אחד בארץ]. It does not necessarily have to be derogatory.
“[She] was hesitating to label the attack as anti-Semitic”
Please let’s be hones for a sec
Attacking someone just because they speak Hebrew with Hebrew lettering on the mic is a prime example of ANTI SEMITISM. Because there are enough lefties in Israel including the media that are all for the Palestinians and so on. So its definitely not so-called “anti-Zionism”. The only possibility is the plain old wretched hatred of JEWS and everything jewish.
BTW I’m assuming given the fact she was hesitating to call it anti-Semitism, that she is also a leftie of sorts.