At a German soccer match last week, a presumably enthusiastic spectator waved an Israeli flag. Security guards responded by removing it. Such incidents, writes Benjamin Weinthal, have been going on in Germany for years:
The pattern typically unfolds in three acts. Act 1 involves German Muslims and leftists protesting against Israel for defending its territory against Hamas rocket attacks or [for employing] other self-defense measures to blunt Islamic terrorism. Act 2 unfolds with the police seizing Israeli flags at solidarity protests to placate anti-Israeli activists. Act 3 results in the authorities issuing an apology for outlawing Israel’s flag from demonstrations. . . .
Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told the Jerusalem Post, “The campaign to make the Israeli flag disappear from public events in Germany is another stage in the demonization of the Jewish state.”
In response to the memory of the Holocaust and pathological feelings of guilt accompanying the crimes of the Shoah, German leftists turned Israel’s flag into a punching bag. Israeli and American flags were burned in 1978 on the 40th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogroms. The elimination of Israel’s flag became a way to attack Jews via a non-bodily form of violence.
Read more on Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Why-are-Germans-so-quick-to-remove-Israeli-flags-400964