Arab tourist in Berlin provokes outrage by firing a rocket through a child's bedroom window on New Year's Eve, later complains to the press that he is a victim of German racism
New Year’s Eve has never been the best holiday, but in many major German cities it has become a real danger to life and limb. As we learned already in Cologne back in 2015, recent migrants to Europe react poorly to raucous nocturnal partying and the wide availability of consumer-grade explosives. In Berlin especially, 31 December has devolved into an annual anti-holiday of criminal rioting, in which crowds of predominantly foreign young men set things on fire, blow things up and shoot fireworks at emergency services.
This year police in the German capital arrested over 400 criminal revellers, and just two city hopsitals reported over 90 injuries between them. At least a dozen police officers were hurt following multiple firework attacks. In Berlin-Schöneberg somebody detonated an explosive massive enough to shatter dozens of windows and make 36 apartments temporarily uninhabitable. This is just the new normal in this, the best and most democratic Germany of all time.
The real show-stealer, however, turned out to be a “social media influencer” and all-around shithead from the West Bank named Atallah Younes, who travelled to Berlin specifically to engage in New Year’s Eve mischief. One wonders how many other people from the Islamic world regard Germany as a prime destination for criminal tourism at this time of year.
Late on the night of 31 December, Younes filmed himself shooting fireworks through a window into an apartment (actually, into a child’s bedroom) in Berlin-Neukölln. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.
Younes posted this video to his 300,000 (predominantly Arabic-speaking) followers on Instagram, whence it made its way into the Germanophone world and occasioned what Germans are wont to call a shitstorm, constituting (as it does) a nearly perfect symbol of the multicultural indignities that we have inflicted upon ourselves.
On 2 January, Die Zeit for some reason tracked Younes down for a telephone interview. The article that resulted is in equal measures predictable and infuriating. Its author explains, for example, that Younes doesn’t speak a word of German and that this trip, on which he fired literal explosives into somebody’s home, was his first to the Federal Republic.
“I want to make people laugh. I want to entertain people,” [Younes] says in response to a question about the purpose of his Instagram account. He is here in Germany for two weeks, shooting content in various cities, including both Munich and Berlin. Younes has many friends in Germany, he says, many of them Palestinians who live here, and he has made videos with them.
Younes says that he is not familiar with German customs. “I don’t know how a rocket works either.” He had only seen that people in Berlin make a lot of noise, apparently having fun. He wanted to experience that too, so he went to a shop and bought rockets. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone on purpose.”
Was he unaware of the danger? He says no. He didn’t think that a firework rocket could fly so far.
He could have seriously injured someone. Does he have no regrets about what he did?
Yes, he says, he is very sorry.
I am sure Younes is indeed very sorry. He is as innocent as the driven snow, our Younes. He has no idea even what fireworks are and he was totally unaware of the peculiar German custom according to which throwing explosives through people’s windows is looked down upon.
Younes and Die Zeit are eager to explain that Younes is also the victim here, because racism:
When Atallah Younes woke up on New Year’s Day, his inbox was full of angry messages. People were asking why he had done it. And there were hate messages and racist insults. He was called a pig, and the messages included “bloody Islam” and “bloody Arab.” Some people even wished him dead. “I was shocked,” he says. “I didn’t expect such a reaction.”
Under his Instagram stories, users are positing the vomiting face as well as aeroplanes accompanied by the words “GET OUT” or “GOODBYE.” There are lots of blue hearts, the kind AfD voters like to post. And over and over again: “Remigration!”
“For the first time, I’m experiencing racism,” Younes says.
It really breaks me up inside, thinking about all the racism Younes must be facing.
As Zeit explain, Younes ended up deleting his bedroom explosion video because it made everybody so racist and angry. He replaced it with another in which he purports to be apologising to the Kurdish Lebanese man who (we are asked to believe) owns the apartment.
“We settled this personally, from Arab to Arab, face to face,” Younes says… There were a few scorch marks on the ceiling and wall of the apartment, the carpet had been slightly affected, but otherwise nothing happened. He therefore wonders what “the Germans and the authorities” still want from him. He saw on X that the police are investigating. “What do the police want from me? Do they think I’m a refugee?”
“Oh, ya alman,” he says. “Man, you Germans” …
“This was my last visit to Germany for a while,” Younes says. He wants to forget the incident as quickly as possible. He seems to think there are a lot of racists here, but he doesn’t want to report the hate messages. “I don’t have time for all that hassle,” he says. “I’m just a tourist. I’m finally flying back home tomorrow”...
Younes indeed tried to fly home yesterday, but when he got to the airport Berlin police arrested him:
At around 5 p.m. today, federal police officers arrested a 23-year-old suspect at Berlin’s Willy Brandt Airport on suspicion of attempted arson and the related offences of attempted dangerous bodily harm and property damage.
The suspect is accused of having deliberately shot a firework rocket into an apartment on Treptower Street in Neukölln at around 6:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. The rocket hit the window of the apartment on the third floor and destroyed it. The burning rocket damaged the furniture in the bedroom of the 33-year-old apartment owner. The fire was prevented from spreading to the rest of the apartment thanks to the quick-thinking actions of the tenant, who threw the burning remains of the rocket out of the window. The tenant himself and the family in the apartment were uninjured.
Younes, the little shit, now finds himself in custody pending trial. I hope he languishes there for months and months.
oh my, a Palestinian that doesn’t know how a rocket works?
If Germans or Brits went to a Muslim country and asked for pork in a polite way or wore symbols of support for Israel their protests that they were not aware it might offend the locals would not be given a moment’s consideration. After the beheading the western media and elites would blame the westerner and sympathise with the Muslim mob.
Is this guy really claiming it is normal on the West Bank to aim fireworks at houses let alone at windows.
I would have expected a visitor to the west from the West Bank, as for many other places, to need a special visa granted only after full examination and references. Why is that not the case?