Kitty O’Brien attended an illustration in Berlin final week to protest towards Israel’s focused killing of Palestinian journalists.
Printed On 2 Sep 2025
Officers within the Republic of Eire have expressed deep concern after an Irish activist dwelling in Germany was punched within the face by a police officer throughout a pro-Palestinian demonstration final week in Berlin.
Kitty O’Brien, 25, is recovering in hospital after sustaining accidents that required surgical procedure, reported The Irish Instances on Tuesday.
Irish Bloc Berlin, an Irish protest group, mentioned O’Brien’s arm was damaged within the incident, based on Irish public broadcaster RTE.
Video on social media confirmed a police officer punching O’Brien twice within the face throughout Thursday’s demonstration, leaving her bleeding closely, and exhibiting blood on her fingers to the police within the melee.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Eire’s prime minister, mentioned he was “deeply involved” by what he known as an “unacceptable” assault.
Maeve Collins, Eire’s ambassador to Germany, expressed “concern” to native authorities over the incident on Sunday.
The Irish Division of Overseas Affairs and Commerce issued a press release saying that it’s “conscious of the incident in query” and that “the Ambassador in Berlin and senior officers within the Division have conveyed our concern concerning the incident to the German authorities”.
Eire has taken one of many strongest stances towards Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, each diplomatically and throughout the European Union, in addition to culturally.
Members of the Irish rap band Kneecap have turn into famend globally for his or her stance towards Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed greater than 63,000 folks and diminished a lot of the enclave to rubble because it started in October 2023.
Germany has remained considered one of Israel’s staunchest supporters within the worldwide neighborhood, together with the US.
German opposition politicians and campaigners say the incident is a part of a wider sample.
Vasili Franco, a Inexperienced Social gathering state politician, accused Berlin’s governing Mayor Kai Wegner of backing a “hard-line strategy in the direction of demonstrators” and refusing investigations prior to now.
German-Moroccan author and activist Mohamed Amjahid mentioned the case marked a “new escalation” of police-demonstrator clashes for the reason that Hamas-led October 7, 2023 assaults on southern Israel and Israel’s ensuing genocidal struggle on Gaza.
“They’ve been given carte blanche to do no matter they need and a number of law enforcement officials really feel, individually and collectively, very protected in punching any person with no penalties,” Amjahid informed The Irish Instances.
Not like different European nations, Germany doesn’t have an unbiased police ombudsman. As an alternative, complaints are often dealt with internally, with few resulting in prosecutions.
German Ambassador to Eire David Gill mentioned the video is “actually terrible”.
Berlin police mentioned no preliminary investigation had been launched towards the officer seen within the video, although a probe was beneath manner into “whether or not the behaviour was acceptable”.
O’Brien faces an investigation for insulting and resisting officers, police added.
German authorities have repeatedly been accused of disproportionately curbing pro-Palestinian protests, with many demonstrations damaged up by a heavy police presence over hole accusations of anti-Semitism.
Police mentioned a whole lot of officers had been deployed to Berlin’s Mitte district on Thursday night to dissolve the unauthorised gathering held to protest Israel’s focused killing of Palestinian journalists.
In complete, 94 folks had been detained after the clashes in central Berlin, and 96 investigations have been launched.
