| Granddaughter of Yitzhak Rabin insulted in Germany It was supposed to be an ordinary charity party in the Munich restaurant Y Julieta. Its organizers from the local Jewish community, long before the event scheduled for last Sunday, agreed on everything with the owner of the establishment and sent out invitations to 150 guests. The main guest was to be Noa Ben Artzi, the granddaughter of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. On the Thursday before the meeting, Dana Leschem from the Munich Jewish charity Keren Hayesod, who is responsible for all organizational details, decided to double-check that everything at Y Julieta was ready to receive guests. And she couldn’t believe her ears when the owner of the restaurant suddenly announced to her that there would be no “Israeli event” in his house: “I won’t open the door for Jews, I don’t want to have any business with Jews.”
The organizers of the evening hastily rented the Pasha discotheque, where the invited people had fun. Noah Ben Artzi, visibly upset, coldly remarked: “Racism is everywhere, we all know that.” The guest talked a lot about her grandfather and that she believes in peace in the Middle East.
But for the owner of the Y Julieta restaurant, the hot days seem to be just beginning. In Germany, any open manifestation of anti-Semitism is prosecuted as a dangerous illegal act. The very next day after the incident, the Munich prosecutor's office opened a criminal case and began an investigation. The mayor of the Bavarian capital, Christian Ude, sent Noah Ben Artzi a letter in which he not only expressed regret about what happened, but also promised “consequences” for the culprit. “The city of Munich,” Uhde also wrote, “cannot afford such behavior.”
Federal Minister of Justice Herta Deubler-Gmelin also expressed her point of view on this incident. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio station, she said: “If the suspicions against the restaurant owner are confirmed, it will be a disgrace for the country.” The Minister of Justice called the incident “outrageous and incredible” and demanded an immediate apology from the restaurant owner, which does not exempt him from criminal prosecution. Deubler-Gmelin believes that not only “insult and slander,” but also “humiliation” within the framework of the relevant legislative paragraphs providing for punishment for inciting ethnic hatred may constitute a crime. Yuri Shpakov, Berlin |
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