Last Friday, fireworks were thrown into an Israeli restaurant in Munich, breaking the windows. No one was injured. The police said they are investigating the incident as antisemitic, most likely because the vandalism was characteristic of attacks on Jewish and Israeli institutions by pro-Palestinian protesters, particularly since October 7, 2023. 

Later that day, in the evening, four IDF soldiers lit a BBQ on a military base in Israel. A passing soldier reported them to the base’s rabbi, and they were sentenced to three weeks in a military prison for “harming religion and Judaism,” since Jewish law prohibits lighting fires on the sabbath, which extends from Friday to Saturday night. The sentence was reduced to one week after an appeal, as well as due to uproar from Israelis who rejected the subjection of secular citizens to draconian religious law.  

In February, two restaurants in Herzliya open on Saturdays had their windows broken in an incident of suspected religious harassment from Jewish activists who oppose businesses opening on the sabbath. Herzliya’s mayor spoke of regular intimidation from individuals who want the city to kowtow to the vision of Israel as a conservative and illiberal society, and are willing to use violence to enforce it. 

The window-breakers in Munich and Herzliya share the same hatred of a liberal and secular Israel. European........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)