Case Of Israeli Jew Assaulted By Men Singing Anti-Semitic Songs In Berlin Being Investigated

The German police is investigating a case where a 26-year-old Jewish man from Israel was attacked by a group of seven men, who were singing anti-Semitic songs at a Berlin subway on New Year's Eve. Shahak Shapira had asked the men to refrain from singing the songs, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Shapira reportedly took a video after the group refused to heed his warning. When Shapira got off the train, the group asked him to delete the video, and beat him up, injuring his head, when he declined to do so, Tagessspiegel, a German news agency, reported. The German police said that they have images of the suspects, which were recorded via security cameras installed at multiple locations in the station.

Shapira said, according to AP, that the members of the group were speaking both German and Arabic.

In September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Germans to fight anti-Semitism at a rally organized by the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in central Berlin. "That people in Germany are threatened and abused because of their Jewish appearance or their support for Israel is an outrageous scandal that we won't accept," Merkel said, according to Reuters. "It's our national and civic duty to fight anti-Semitism."

About 200,000 Jews are currently residing in Germany.