LONDON: An investigation has been launched after a German police officer was filmed punching an Irish activist in the face at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Berlin on Thursday, The Guardian reported.
Activist Kitty O’Brien was hit twice by the officer before being dragged away with a bloodied face, footage uploaded to social media showed.
O’Brien, who was reported to have suffered a broken arm by local newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, reportedly swore at police and was filmed calling the officer a Nazi before the incident took place.
“We as the Berlin police are reviewing whether the officer acted proportionately, and we’re doing it as part of a criminal investigation on suspicion of bodily harm on duty,” a spokesperson said. O’Brien is being investigated for insulting officers and resisting arrest, the police said.
The incident sparked criticism in O’Brien’s homeland, with Maeve Collins, the Irish ambassador to Germany, conveying her “concern” to the German government, the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs said. Protests were held outside the German Embassy in Dublin on Saturday.
Zoe Lawlor, chair of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “They had to take it seriously. It was two very violent assaults … It’s shocking. The German police are just horrendous when it comes to Palestine activism.”
Lawlor added that O’Brien’s injury means the activist will be unable to work for a period, and that a fundraiser has been launched.
O’Brien’s aunt Catherine Stocker, a Social Democrat councillor, said the activist had suffered nerve damage in the broken arm.
“What 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,” Stocker told Irish broadcaster RTE.
The Berlin police said its officers were responding to an unauthorized “gathering in the context of the Middle East conflict” in the Hackescher Markt area of the capital.
They added that protesters — including members of a group called Irish Bloc Berlin, which organized the event — were “verbally aggressive” and chanted “criminal, prohibited slogans” while marching through the area.
“As there was no apparent leader of the gathering, the crowd was ordered to disperse,” the police said in a statement. “During the operation, there were insults, physical attacks and acts of resistance against police officers.”
The police arrested 94 people at the protest, with media reports that chants of “Yallah, yallah, intifada” and “From the river to the sea” were heard.
Criminal investigations have been opened into 96 people in total, including for “using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations, attacks on law enforcement officers, insulting behavior and bodily harm.”
