Berlin’s Police Chief has links to evangelical Israel lobbyists |
It is well known that Christian fundamentalists in the United States are among Israel’s most important supporters. It is also widely recognised that so-called evangelicals, thanks to generous donations from ultra-conservative benefactors, have become the fastest-growing religious community in the world. Their missionary work has been particularly successful in Latin America, but also in Africa and Asia. Their influence is also said to be increasing in Europe. In Germany, both the Catholic and Protestant churches have been struggling with a crisis for years, not least as a result of major scandals involving child sexual abuse. While hundreds of thousands leave the churches every year, the influence of fundamentalists is said to be growing.
One such group is “Christians at the Side of Israel” (Christen an der Seite Israels), founded in Germany in 1998. Among other things, the association finances an Israeli anti-abortion organisation, another group that assists Jews in emigrating to Palestine, and the construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank. It also advocates a “Greater Israel“ stretching from the river to the sea. Last year, these facts contributed to Felix Klein, the German government’s so-called “Commissioner for Combating Antisemitism“, withdrawing his patronage from the “Israel Day” organised by the group after criticism.
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This year, however, Berlin’s Police President Barbara Slowik Meisel appeared at the same event at the end of February as a “guest of honour“. According to the organisers, “over 400 friends and supporters of Israel” gathered there with the aim of “celebrating their God and expressing their connection with the Jewish people”. Participants also “sang fervently and prayed with hope”, including “especially for our Berlin police”. The programme also included “biblical reflections on God’s plans for Israel”. Alongside Slowik Meisel, participants included the pro-zionist activist Karoline Preisler and Iman Sefati, who works for the tabloid “Bild“. “Bild“ is one of Germany’s highest-circulation and most influential daily newspapers. It belongs to the right-wing, Transatlantic “Axel Springer“ media group, which recently acquired the British “Telegraph“, and has itself been implicated in illegal settlement construction in the West Bank.
Since late 2023, videos and photographs from Berlin have regularly circulated around the world showing armoured and masked German police beating peaceful demonstrators into hospital, chasing children carrying Palestinian flags, or stamping out candles placed in memory of the dead in Gaza. As a result of this footage, Germany was sharply criticised last year by the EU Commissioner for Human Rights as well as by UN human rights experts. Normally, when questioned about their extreme repression of the Palestine solidarity movement, German law enforcement authorities point to instructions from political leaders. Slowik Meisel’s appearance at this event, however, suggests that the police themselves are part of that policy.
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