Burning a Synagogue

For John, BLUF:  This is a stupid decision, one that will come back to bite them.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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GERMAN COURT CALLS SYNAGOGUE TORCHING AN ACT TO 'CRITICIZE ISRAEL'

And the sub headline:

A regional court in Germany has decided that a brutal attempt to set fire to a local synagogue in 2014 was an act meant to express criticism against Israel's conduct in its ongoing conflict with Gaza

The source is The Jerusalem Post and the Reporter is Mr Benjamin Weinthal.  The dateline is 13 January 2017.

Here is the lede plus one:

German regional court in the city of Wuppertal affirmed a lower court decision last Friday stating that a violent attempt to burn the city's synagogue by three men in 2014 was a justified expression of criticism of Israel’s policies.

Johannes Pinnel, a spokesman for the regional court in Wuppertal, outlined the court’s decision in a statement. Three German Palestinians sought to torch the Wuppertal synagogue with Molotov cocktails in July, 2014.  The local Wuppertal court panel said in its 2015 decision that the three men wanted to draw “attention to the Gaza conflict” with Israel.  The court deemed the attack not to be motivated by antisemitism.

I am assuming if the perps had been Germans it would have been recognized as antisemitism.  Perhaps Palestinians are not capable of antisemitism.♠

I like this little bit of irony:

The attack caused €800 damage to the synagogue.  The original synagogue in Wuppertal was burned by Germans during the Kristallnacht pogroms in 1938.  Wuppertal has a population of nearly 344,000 and is located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Wuppertal.

What if the attack had succeeded and the synagogue had burned to the ground?  Would the German Regional Court have come up with a different view of the attack?  With a different punishment?

Hat tip to the drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  There seems to be a theory in circulation that some groups are not capable of hate or prejudice, since they have suffered hate or prejudice.