Antonia Yamin, a Europe correspondent for Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, was in the middle of her Hebrew-language report when a group of young men interrupted her in Berlin’s Neukölln district.
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While they tried to block the camera, the reporter was visibly annoyed at the intrusion, but just a few seconds after they left, she was forced to flee the scene along with the cameraman as a firecracker was thrown at them.
She tweeted a video of the incident with the caption:“The truth is I had a very nice day at work today. But between one interview and another I had to stop to report about the Brexit deal. As you can see on the video you can't report in Hebrew in Berlin’s Neukölln neighbourhood without being disturbed and without people throwing firecrackers at you.”
Haaretz reported that Yamin described the assailants as 18-19-year-old men of ‘migrant background’.
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Speaking to the German daily Bild, she alleged that the intervention could be explained by the fact that she was speaking Hebrew and had Hebrew writing on her microphone, although she avoided saying if this was the real reason behind the assault.
Neukölln Mayor Martin Hikel described the incident as ‘totally unacceptable’.
‘It doesn’t matter what triggered their behaviour: I condemn every form of anti-Semitism. Jews and Israelis should not have to be afraid’ to be in this district, he said.
The footage was widely shared on social media, with many Germans apologising for what had happened to Yamin:
Others stressed that those men were migrants, and that given Angela Merkel’s open-doors policy, such an attack was not unexpected:
Earlier this month, a group of Germany-based Jewish organisations called on Berlin to clamp down on anti-Semitism, citing a wave of anti-Jewish assaults across the country over the past few months.