An Israel flag that was mounted at the main synagogue in Vienna was ripped away as counts of antisemitic incidents rose sharply across the nation, with the incidents that occurred in the past two weeks being triple that of the past year.
In a video posted to TikTok, two young men can be seen ripping an Israel flag from where it is mounted – and meant to be protected by police – at 2 a.m. on Saturday.
The incident adds to a growing list of attacks on the Israeli flag. In Salzburg, a 14-year-old ripped the flag from its holster at Mirabell Palace while unknown assailants cut up an Israeli flag in Linz.
Since the recent flare-up in violence between Hamas and Israel, Austria’s Israeli Kultusgemeinde had been informed of 76 counts of antisemitic attacks – like a brick thrown into the window of a kosher butcher.
“Compared to the incidents reported in the whole of 2022, this represents an increase of 300 per cent,” said their secretary-general, Benjamin Nägele, on Sunday.
The lack of announced police detail at Vienna’s synagogue and the changed security environment – Austria’s terror warning was raised to the second-highest level – is adding pressure to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.
“The situation in Austria is sensitive and challenging,” he told ORF on Sunday while calling for additional laws to enable security services to be able to account for private messages on messenger WhatsApp.
(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | Euractiv.de)
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