New video shows the removal of two Israeli flags and not just one as was first thought. Instead of slapping a yellow Star of David on armbands, now they are removing the Jewish star. (hat tip Kasper)
German police break into private home to remove Israeli flag to appease "peaceful" protesters:
UPDATE: Michael translates for us:
(0.19)
"The attitude of the police leads us to believe that there is a double standard here. Why should a harmless flag be removed, with forced entry into an apartment to tear it down, yet all the banners carried by the Palestinian supporters and all the chanting calling for the destruction of Israel and for people in Israel to be killed, all quite openly shouted out, those banners are allowed yet the Israeli flag has to be taken down. We cannot see the justification in this."
(0.55)
Now the young man who hung the flag from the window the previous Saturday can see the pictures on the internet, but he doesn't want to speak publicly through fear of possible reprisals by violent Islamists.
(1.08)
"I would never have thought that freedom of opinion in Germany would have become so controlled that the Star of David flag could be seen as provocative and that the police would give in to Islamists."
(1.20)
These accusations are flatly rejected by the Duisburg police, who today reiterated that forced entry into the flat and the removal of the flag was justified, as was the limiting of the freedom of expression of the man who had displayed the flag.
(1.37)
"The main criticism is this: firstly, the people throwing stones should have been arrested, the people chanting "F***ing Jews" should have been arrested and there should have been better security arrangements provided."
(1.56)
"We had thousands of demonstrators getting more and more worked up, the police then have to get involved, property was being damaged and at that point we came to the decision that the flag was causing it."
(2.14)
The police feels its actions were justified as (they say) the crowd calmed down again once the Israeli flag had been removed.
UPDATE: From Jerusalem Post: German police ban Israeli flags
A video that appears on YouTube shows an angry crowd in front of the apartment house and the police forcibly seizing the Israeli flags. The confiscation of the flags was greeted by cheers from the anti-Israeli protesters.
The student told the online magazine Spiegel that he wanted to show "solidarity with the sole democracy in the region," and complained about societal indifference in Germany toward Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.
"Can anyone imagine the German police going into a private home to remove a Hamas flag?"
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said in a statement.
"This type of response will only encourage more aggressive and violent behavior by anti-Israel demonstrators and send the message that in Germany, Jews and supporters of Israel do not enjoy the full protection of the law,"
he said.
Responding to Zuroff's criticism of the police conduct as "cowardly" and "incomprehensible" as well as to the outrage of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Duisburg Police Chief Rolf Cebin posted a statement on the police Web site on Wednesday, saying "I deeply regret that feelings, especially those of our Jewish fellow citizens, were hurt.
"The removal of the flags was, as we see it today, the wrong decision," Cebin said.
