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Berlin police investigating vandalism of Kindertransport memorial following pro-Palestinian demonstrations
BERLIN (JTA) — Police in Germany are investigating after a Berlin memorial to the Jewish children rescued from the Nazis was vandalized, including with images of a mosque.
The vandalism occurred on New Year’s Eve, during a spate of unauthorized pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the German capital, according to Martin Stralau, a spokesperson for the State Criminal Police.
The memorial by the late Frank Meisler, installed near the Friedrichstrasse commuter train station in 2008, is dedicated to the roughly 10,000 Jewish children who were sent to safety in England on so-called Kindertransports in 1938 and 1939 by Jewish aid organizations. Many never saw their parents and siblings again. Meisler himself escaped Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport and eventually settled in Israel. The memorial features large casts of children holding suitcases.
Photos of the vandalism, which depicted buildings with a cross and a crescent, were circulated widely on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
As the national organization representing and caring for Holocaust survivors and refugees – The AJR is disgusted that this poignant and cherished monument, which commemorates the desperate yet life-saving journeys of the youngest victims of Nazi oppression, has been desecrated. pic.twitter.com/spFnvmFfwV
— The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) (@TheAJR_) January 3, 2024
“The daubing reflects the motif of defining Muslims and Christians as Palestinians who are oppressed by the Israeli state, which has been trending on social media around Christmas,” said Benjamin Steinitz, project manager for RIAS, the Antisemitism Research and Information Center based in Berlin.
“We are not aware of other desecrations of that kind,” he added.
Stralau told JTA that someone who is invested in care for the memorial had informed the police of the vandalism and pressed charges. He said the graffiti had been successfully removed.
Though the perpetrators have not been identified, there were numerous arrests on New Year’s Eve in Berlin amid the demonstrations, which took place despite a formal ban by German police who said the rallies could lead to crimes including antisemitic displays.
The memorial is not the first Holocaust-related site to be defaced amid widespread graffiti tied to the Israel-Hamas war. A Holocaust library in London also had its sign vandalized and quickly repaired.
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The post Berlin police investigating vandalism of Kindertransport memorial following pro-Palestinian demonstrations appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.