2023-10-08 12:45:00
The attacks of the terrorist organization Hamas on the Israeli population sparked outrage around the world on Saturday. Several hundred people were killed, kidnapped or wounded by armed fighters on the first day. While that official Austria condemned the attacks in the strongest possible terms, there were occasional cheers.
On Saturday, a group of young Viennese organized an information event on Mariahilfer Straße under the title “Palestine Solidarity Austria”. Afterwards, dozens of young people celebrated and danced with the Palestinian flag through the city center to Ballhausplatz.
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Politicians criticize
Vienna’s deputy mayor, for example, described it as “frightening”. Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) the events. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is monitoring the situation closely, the police said. “It is frightening and unacceptable that Hamas’ attacks on Israel are being applauded in Vienna. Our support goes to the Israeli people in this difficult time!” said Wiederkehr on X, formerly Twitter.
“Shame on you! “You don’t speak for us people of Arab/Palestinian origin,” she wrote SPÖ National Council member Muna Duzdar on the short message service. FPÖ Mariahilf district chairman Leo Kohlbauer In a broadcast he said he was “horrified and shocked”. “It is unbearable that people in the middle of Mariahilferstrasse openly sympathize with brutal murders, desecrations and kidnappings by Muslims once morest Jews.”
FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer demanded that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution deal with “terrorist sympathizers” and that “illegal mass immigration be put to a stop” since the participants in the rallies apparently largely had an “Arab-Islamic migration background.”
ÖVP Vienna boss Karl Mahrer doesn’t want to accept the demonstrations – “We can’t go back to the agenda here,” he is quoted as saying in a broadcast. The Vienna ÖVP integration spokeswoman Caroline Hungerlander sees a failure of integration in Vienna. The governor of Lower Austria Johanna Mikl Leitner (ÖVP) condemned the flying of Palestinian flags in the federal capital and “all kinds of anti-Semitism”.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) wrote in a press statement on Sunday: “The Office for the Protection of the Constitution takes consistent action once morest every form of Islamist extremism and terrorism. But he also fights those who finance or try to legitimize this terrorism and its terrible acts.”
The police said the demonstrations were emotional but peaceful and intervention was largely unnecessary WHAT-Inquiry. Gatherings are generally permitted in Austria, and grounds for dissolution are given, for example, if a meeting contravenes criminal law or if holding it endangers public safety or the public welfare. This is being continually examined in the current situation.
In addition to the situation being monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, all police forces were also made aware. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is in close contact with European and Israeli security authorities, and increased surveillance of affected facilities in Vienna and throughout Austria has been ordered. The police emphasized that these measures were initiated in the first hours following the attack by the terrorist organization Hamas.
“As a result of the military and terrorist attacks on Israel, the protective measures for synagogues and other IKG facilities have been adjusted,” it says on the website Israeli religious community (ICG). We are “in close contact with the security authorities”. The flags and symbols of Hamas or the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which has now also attacked Israel, are banned in Austria.
Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin
Also in Berlin There were pro-Palestinian gatherings. In Berlin-Neukölln late Saturday evening, around 50 people gathered for what the police said was a pro-Palestinian demonstration. The police checked the people and took appropriate measures, said a police spokesman when asked.
A video on Instagram shared by the anti-Israel network Samidoun showed a group chanting slogans. The organization had already distributed sweet baked goods to passers-by on Saturday followingnoon, “in celebration of the victory of the resistance,” as they wrote on Instagram.
German police have increased protection of Jewish and Israeli institutions.
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