In Munich, Pro-Israel Demonstrators Form a Human Chain Around a Synagogue

In Munich, one more antisemitic crowd marched through the city center, chanting their squalid slogans, and raised their decibel level just outside a synagogue, while services — Shabbat prayers — were going on within. They shouted “death to the IDF” and “Zionists are child murderers.” But another group of people, Jews and non-Jews, were ready for them, and formed a human chain around that synagogue’s perimeter, intent on protecting it and the worshippers attending Shabbat services inside. More on this physical expression of solidarity, which one hopes will be imitated elsewhere, wherever the antisemites gather to chant their slogans, and scream their hate to harass Jews, can be found here: “Munich Residents Form Human Chain to Protect Synagogue From Anti-Israel Protest Marked by Antisemitic Chants,” by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, July 21, 2025:

Munich residents formed a human chain around a local synagogue in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community in Germany, as an anti-Israel protest marched through the city center during Shabbat prayers.

On Friday night, around 750 people protested against the war in Gaza in central Munich, rallying near the main synagogue at Jakobsplatz as Shabbat prayers took place inside — a demonstration that sparked fear among members of the Jewish community and prevented some from attending services, German media reported.

Organized under the slogan “Stop the Genocide. Free Palestine,” the protest was marked by openly antisemitic chants, as demonstrators shouted “Death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],” “Zionists are fascists, child murderers, and racists,” and “There is only one state: Palestine.”

Participants in the demonstration not only deny Israel’s right to exist but also dismissed the suffering of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas as a “lie,” minimizing the atrocities perpetrated by the Palestinian terrorist group…

The message from the Munich marchers is simple: the Jewish state has no right to exist. Jews are killers, committing genocide in Gaza. Hamas did not commit atrocities on October 7, 2023. Israeli hostages are well treated and in any case, are mostly “war criminals.”

Yes, those hostages were “war criminals,” such as the Bibas boys, Ariel 4, and Kfir, 9 months, as well as Oded Lifshitz, 84. And they are “well treated” as long as you overlook the repeated sexual assaults, the beatings, the starvation, and the fiendish torture.

Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and president of the Jewish Community of Munich (IKG), sharply criticized local authorities for allowing the protest to take place and condemned the demonstration as a “deliberate attempt at intimidation.”

She also expressed her gratitude to the “Munich is Colorful” alliance and the group “Grandmothers Against the Right” for their efforts to protect the synagogue and show solidarity with the Jewish community.

“This human chain sends an important message, especially to the city. Once again, they have proven they can be relied upon — they take action when it matters,” Knobloch said.

Bernhard Liess, the city council chairman, also criticized the decision to allow a pro-Palestinian demonstration with anti-Israel slogans to take place during Shabbat.

Of course the pro-Hamas demonstrators chose to mount their march through the city center of Munich precisely on the day, and at the time, when they knew Jews would be inside the synagogue celebrating Shabbat, and that building became the focus of their harassment.

There has been a vertiginous rise, a sickening doubling, year to year, of antisemitic incidents, in all of Germany. In Berlin, too, the rise is similarly appalling, with as many antisemitic incidents in the first six months of 2024 as in all of the previous year.

And so what is needed is more solidarity, please, with the Jews in Europe subject to such attacks. More human chains must form, to surround synagogues, Jewish schools, kosher restaurants under assault. More signs held high that do more than say “I support Israel” or “Am Yisrael chai.” No, these counter-demonstrators should go on the offensive against Islam itself, with damning quotes from the Qur’an and hadith. Imagine counter-protesters holding up a sign that says this: “Non-Muslims are the most vile of created beings” (Quran 98:6), or “When you meet the Unbelievers, strike at their necks” (Qur’an 47:4) or “I have been made victorious through terror” (Muhammad, in Sahih Bukhari, 2977). Every quotation is true. How the Muslims and their fellow travelers will rage. But what they can’t do is deny the accuracy of those quotes, and dozens of others from the Qur’an and hadith that are just as damning. The trick is to make sure what is written on those signs is reported on, verbatim, by the media, for that will make a deep impression on the public. And that is exactly what one wants.