German ‘diversity’ Christmas market banned for selling Hamas gifts

From The Telegraph

Prosecutors are investigating the Michaelskirche parish in Darmstadt for “incitement to hatred” and the “use of terrorist symbols” after receiving complaints about the festive event held on Sunday.

Stalls at the market sold keyrings emblazoned with Hamas’ red triangle emblem, a symbol the terror group uses to mark enemy targets that was banned in Germany in July.

Also for sale were maps of Palestine with the state of Israel erased, festive biscuits that read “Palestinian Lives Matter”

and stickers with the slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Advertised as an “anti-colonial, peace-supporting Christmas market”, traditional mulled wine and carols were on offer alongside the pro-Palestine trinkets. The parish’s website invited people to a “journey for diversity and solidarity with all oppressed people” and to “support Palestinians with the proceeds from our market”.

Robert Hartmann, a senior prosecutor, told German media that they “are investigating whether criminal offences may have been committed”. No suspects have yet been identified.

Both the Michaelskirche parish and a pro-Palestine group called Darmstadt4Palestine that co-organised the event are under investigation, German media reported.

Daniel Neumann, the chairman of the Jewish community in Darmstadt, said: “It is a scandal that a Protestant church community either naively allows itself to be involved in this or maliciously does so.”

Hanno Benz, Darmstadt’s mayor, said: “Anti-Semitism has no place in our society. Holding such an event under the umbrella of a Protestant community is intolerable… Attempts are being made to delegitimise Israel’s right to exist and to demonise the state of Israel.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, Pastor Manfred Werner, the parish leader, said he had “zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.  I apologise to the Jewish community, my community, the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, the church governing bodies and all those involved in the work of the Dialogue Forum and to all people who are rightly outraged by this contempt for humanity . . . In the future, we will take a close look at which symbols of dialogue partners in the dialogue forum are given guest status on our premises.”