The headquarters of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin was sprayed with red paint and defaced with symbols clearly pro-Hamas early on Thursday morning.
“Reason of state = genocide” and two triangles pointing downwards were painted on the Willy Brandt House in central Berlin, a police spokesman said. The symbols are linked to sympathizers of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, and police assume there is a political motive.
The phrase refers to Germany’s longstanding policy toward Israel. Shortly after the unprecedented massacre by Hamas and other extremist groups that killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone conversation: “The security of Israel is Germany’s raison d’être.”
In an interview with the Jüdische Allgemeine, a German-language Jewish weekly, SPD Secretary General Kevin Kühnert said: “Those who use Islamic symbols are not standing for the protection and self-determination of Palestinian citizens, but quite the opposite.”
He added: “Hamas is the cause of most of the problems in Gaza. Supporting it means increasing the misery.”
Police initially blamed the incident on climate activists, but later retracted this claim as it was still unclear who was responsible.
As Germany’s SPD-led centre-left coalition government, together with the conservative opposition, takes a pro-Israel course in the current conflict, violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations have taken place in Berlin and other centres.
Scholz has made it clear that he broadly supports Israel, but he also supports a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
