Berlin is often described by travel guides as one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly cities in Europe (Picture: AFP)
Some parts of Berlin are not safe for openly LGBTQ+ people and Jews, Berlin’s top police official has claimed.
Barbara Slowik, the chief of the Berlin police force, said the city does not have specific ‘no-go zones’ that are ‘too dangerous’ for some people.
But she said there are some neighbourhoods where queer and Jewish Berliners may feel more unsafe.
‘However, there are areas, and we must be honest at this stage, where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly homosexual or lesbians to be more careful,’ she told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.
Slowik said she did not want to paint any one group as ‘perpetrators’ but proceeded to single out Arab communities.
‘There are, unfortunately, neighbourhoods in Berlin with a majority of residents from Arab backgrounds where there is open sympathy for terrorist organisations and very blatant antisemitism,’ she said.
Barbara Slowik napshot-photography/F Boillot/Shutterstock)
Slowik added: ‘[The number of] violent crimes against Jewish people is fortunately low, although every crime is undoubtedly one too many. I can understand that fear and concern remain.’
Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched an attack against Israel that saw more than 1,100 people killed, Berlin police have opened 6,200 investigations into anti-Semitism, Slowik said.
Most cases relate to online messages or graffiti, while roughly 1,300 concerned violent incidents.
Slowik said the majority related to violence against police officers at gatherings like protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians since October 7, according to health officials.
Earlier this month, a Jewish youth football team were chased by a crowd of youths wielding sticks and knives following a game in Neukölln. Makkabi Berlin team members -since placed under police protection – claim the young people shouted anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments at them.
While on October 30, two men hurled homophobic insults at a restaurant waiter before hitting him in the face in the Tiergarten district of Berlin.
A Jewish youth football clum said they were ‘hunted down’ by Arab youths after a match (Picture: Markus Lenhardt/Avalon)
Out of 49 countries in Europe, Germany was ranked as the 10th most LGBTQ+ friendly country this year by ILGA-Europe, up from 14th the year before.
The LGBTQ+ campaign group’s annual Rainbow Map says this is partly down to the country’s strengthened anti-discrimination laws.
MANEO, an anti-LGBTQ+ violence group, recorded 1,014 anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in Berlin last year, up 29% from the previous year.
Such a figure is undoubtedly higher, campaigners warn, as the majority of hate crimes are not reported to the authorities.
‘A contributing factor is the ever-increasing visibility of our diverse scene cultures in the city, which make Berlin a city of diversity, but also offer greater scope for attack from people who are positioned against universal human rights, diversity and tolerance in society and against our liberal and democratic principles,’ MANEO said in a report.
‘Visibility goes hand in hand with increasing scope for attack.’
Germany has been grappling with an increase in far-right sentiment (Picture: AFP)
Berlin has long been seen as ‘Europe’s capital of Arab culture’ after the city welcomed thousands of Moroccans in 1960 to help rebuild the country’s post-war economy.
Today, more than 182,600 people of Arab origin call Berlin home.
Neukölln, the Berlin district with the highest Arab population, has a thriving LGBTQ+ nightlife scene.
Advocate groups say that Islamophobic hate crimes in Germany – which rose by 114% in 2023 – are becoming increasingly ‘overlooked’ by the authorities.
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