Following record-level unrest during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bern, the police give numbers. Accordingly, most of them came from other cantons. Twenty-three were minors.
After Saturday’s pro-Palestinian protest in Bern, police confirmed that 536 individuals had been temporarily detained for identity checks. Most were Swiss nationals but from outside the canton. Among them were 23 minors. Many participants of the “Two years of genocide, 100 years of resistance” march were said to have worn protective masks, goggles, and black changeable clothing. According to the police, extensive video material is available to support potential charges such as breach of the peace, property damage, assault on officers or masking one’s identity.
During the demonstration, which drew up to 5,000 people, the slogans “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea” – both of which are not banned in Switzerland – were chanted. Members of a so-called “black bloc” reportedly built and set fire to barricades, damaged and looted buildings, rendered cash machines unusable and sprayed graffiti on facades. Police responded with water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and batons. The resulting property damage is estimated to be in the millions. Eighteen officers were injured, and nine cantonal police vehicles damaged.
The Bern city council is expected to discuss the riots on Thursday. According to the Berner Zeitung, the unrest exceeded the scale of the 2008 World Economic Forum clashes, when 242 people were detained – a figure that had stood as a national “record”. The canton’s liberal security director has now called for a ban on Antifa.
Published in German in ‘nd’.
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