Demos with Middle East connection in Berlin: Videos of running police officers

The police arrest a child at a demonstration. The Senate should evaluate such incidents more closely in order to prevent escalations, demand the Greens.

The Senate does not know what exactly happens at the numerous demonstrations related to the Middle East conflict Photo: Fabian Sommer/dpa

BERLIN taz | How many police officers does it take to catch an 11-year-old boy running across Breitscheidplatz with a rolled-up Palestinian flag? If you look at a video that has been circulating online since Saturday to answer this question, you can see that the Berlin police are running after him with at least five officers. They stand in a circle around the boy, more police officers come over and shield him from demonstrators.

The boy, in turn, stands with his back to the wall and looks into the camera with wide eyes. After a cut, the crowd of police officers can be seen leading the boy away. “You are taking a minor with you,” can be heard. Another cut, and two officers maneuver the child into a police car.

The 51-second video was filmed on Saturday evening at a demonstration “related to the Middle East conflict”. The police said that the officers had become aware of the boy because he had apparently taken part in the demonstration “unaccompanied”. For “his own protection”, the police had taken him “into custody” and informed his father, who picked him up 90 minutes later. There is no suspicion of a crime. “No arrest was made.”

It is scenes like these that the Senate should record and evaluate much more systematically than before, demands MP Vasili Franco, domestic policy spokesman for the Greens. In a minor inquiry, he asked the Senate about “criminal offenses and bans in connection with gatherings related to the situation in Israel and Gaza.”

Lack of overview harms all sides

The result: The Senate obviously does not even have an overview of the number of demonstrators, the number of people injured at demonstrations, disciplinary proceedings against police officers, actual anti-Semitic incidents, people who use the situation to escalate, or which gatherings were particularly problematic.

“For almost a year, the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack and the suffering in Gaza have been present on Berlin’s streets and in numerous gatherings,” says Franco. “Although escalations at gatherings, including accusations of police violence, have repeatedly generated a huge response, there is no well-founded analysis of the gatherings over the last year.” The Interior Ministry should draw up a situation report – as it did for the Last Generation or the European Football Championship.

Because: While Berlin looks away from the perspective of the Green Party’s interior politician, the so-called world is looking all the more closely through the social media window. The video of the boys was shared and commented on by high-reach accounts on X – mostly with the take that Berlin’s police are now arresting children.

“Such videos are often deliberately intended to fuel an escalation,” says Franco. Children are sometimes even encouraged to provoke at demonstrations. The police often do not comment or simply argue that they had to take tough action because of anti-Semitic crimes.

“This is damaging to everyone: Palestinians in Berlin, who no longer feel represented by anyone.” “But also to the police themselves, if there is no dispute about it, the action was legal,” he says. Extremists knew how to use this to their advantage – they had the same international audience in mind. “The Senate is letting the pictures speak for themselves,” criticizes Franco. And in doing so, it is encouraging escalation.