Berlin’s top cop issues chilling warning to Jews, openly gay people to watch their backs in Arab-majority neighborhoods

The police chief in Germany’s capital is urging Jews and gay people to “be vigilant” while traversing certain Arab-majority neighborhoods, warning many of them contain pockets of antisemitism and residents who harbor support for terrorist groups.

“There are areas of the city, we need to be perfectly honest here, where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay to be more careful,” Berlin top cop Barbara Slowik told a German newspaper.

“In many major cities, you should be vigilant in certain public places to protect yourself from any kind of crime,” she warned.

“There are certain neighborhoods where the majority of people of Arab origin live, who also have sympathies for terrorist groups,” she added, noting open hostility towards Jews in some areas.

While Slowik tried to downplay incidents of antisemitism, calling them “few and far between,” crimes against Jews have surged in Germany since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Berlin police opened more than 6,000 investigations into reported antisemitic incidents, Slowik said — more than double the rate compared with previous years.

While many of these reports concern online hate speech or graffiti, Germany has also seen more serious crimes against Jews on the rise.

Just last week a mob of youths in Berlin’s Neukolln neighborhood threatened a Jewish high school soccer team, chanting “free Palestine” and “f–king Jews” while wielding knives and sticks.

Neukolln, the Berlin borough known for its large Arab and Turkish population, is also famous for its gay nightlife, and has been the site of several incidents of assault on gay individuals in the past several years.

Immediately following Oct. 7, men handed out sweets on the streets of Neukolln in celebration of Hamas’ terror attack on Israelis, and later in the month two men firebombed a local synagogue.

Germany has grappled with the impact of Europe’s ever-worsening migrant crisis for nearly a decade, and ranks third in the world for hosting refugees, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

In September the German government ratcheted up control at its borders, citing public safety concerns over Islamist extremism as migrants flee war and poverty the Middle East en masse.