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November 19, 2004/Kislev 6 5765, Vol. 57, No. 12
Berlin marchers oppose Israel
TOBY AXELROD
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BERLIN - What is anti-Semitism? Two young Muslim girls marching in Berlin's Al-Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, parade didn't know, even though they were holding up signs opposing "occupation, racism and anti-Semitism."
Then they marched, with some 1,000 others, through the German capital on Nov. 13.
The Shi'ite Islamist parade was one of several held around the world to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The event was begun in 1979 by Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini to con-demn Israel's existence.
In Berlin this year, those demands were veiled. There were posters condemning "all forms of terrorism" and pro-claiming the equal value of the three major faiths, which one day hopefully would live toget-her in a "liberated Palestine."
To some extent, the moderate appearance of the Islamist parade on Nov. 13 was a result of the attention drawn to the event by a coalition of pro-democracy groups.
"We succeeded in getting them to be more reserved" in their slogans, said Anette Kahane, founder of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a watch-dog against racism, xenophobia and anti-Semtism, who helped organize a pro-Israel counter-demonstration.
The pro-Israel group included many Iranian exiles who protested human rights abuses in their homeland. About 150 people stood on a street blocked off by a phalanx of green-and-white police vans.
Similarly, the Nov. 6 Al-Quds Day parade in Lon-don met with protests by Iranian dissidents who handed out leaflets stating that Iran, as a repressive regime, "is no friend of Palestinians or any other nation."
"Al-Quds Day stands for the destruction of Israel," said Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a lecturer and journalist in Berlin who translates Iranian publi-cations for the Middle East Media Research Institute. "It is the anti-Semitic symbol in the national ideology of Iran."
Salima, 11, said she didn't know what anti-Semitism or occupation meant.
"We are here because of the war in Palestine," she said.
Nadir, 17, said anti-Semitism meant that "the Israelis want the land for themselves."
In Berlin, Dantschke was not surprised some of the Islamist marchers did not understand the words on the posters they carried. The slogans were "meant for the German public" to ensure that the Islamic group can march again next year, Dantschke said.
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