Irish citizen beaten by police at Palestine protest in Berlin speaks out

Kitty O'Brien, the Irish citizen who was beaten by Berlin police at a pro-Palestine demonstration last week, has spoken out about the ongoing issue of police brutality against protestors in Germany.

Videos on social media show a police officer punching O'Brien in the face twice during a peaceful demonstration for Palestine in Berlin on August 28, leaving her bleeding heavily. The 25-year-old from Dublin was hospitalised for six days after sustaining injuries that required surgery.

"The video of me being beaten went viral because I’m white," said O'Brien in a statement posted to Instagram yesterday.

"But the violence I experienced is just a drop in the ocean compared to what my Palestinian, Arab and other racialised comrades have endured at the hands of the German state police over the past two years."

The demonstration followed Israel's double-tap strike on a hospital in Gaza, which killed 20 people, including five journalists working for international media sources.

A representative of the Berlin police spoke to German press following the incident, saying the viral video of the assault "ultimately harms the Berlin police, especially abroad" and claiming that "officers were compelled" to use force against O'Brien.

"That's just the bitter fate of the police," the representative said, adding, "We are the ones who are authorised to use direct force. That also means using violence against people in an emergency, if no other option is available."

However in multiple videos from different viewpoints, O'Brien does not appear to physically initiate or retaliate, even showing officers the blood on her hands before they abruptly grab her by her head and drag her away from the demonstration.

"What we need every person outside the movement in Berlin to understand is this: the violence you saw in that video is the rule of the Berlin police - not the exception," O'Brien said.

"I've seen 16-year-old Palestinian boys get their faces smashed in by five men in riot gear. I've seen people lifted and swung by the neck, broken bones, bleeding noses, unconscious friends, more times than I can even begin to count. This isn't even the first black eye the Berlin police have given me and I highly doubt it'll be the last.

"If what happened to me outraged you, that same energy needs to be directed at every act of violence carried out by the Berlin police, because they are relentless."

Various Irish officials have spoken out about the incident including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who said he was "deeply concerned" by what he called an "unacceptable" assault.

Today, she was interviewed by RTÈ radio about the incident.

Ahead of the interview, she posted on Instagram that she intended to talk about her friend Ryad Aref, a Palestinian journalist whose press credentials were confiscated after the video he took of the assault went viral. In a later post, O'Brien claimed that RTÈ cut parts of the interview where she talked about Aref.

Along with highlighting the ongoing issue of police brutality in Berlin, O'Brien condemned the German government for blocking efforts by other EU states to sanction Israel, including Ireland.

"Today is my sixth full day in the hospital. Today also marks six months since Israel halted the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza," O'Brien said.

"Since I was admitted on Thursday, Israel has murdered hundreds of Palestinians, people who had already spent the last 23 months of their lives enduring unimaginable violence and brutality on every level.

While German police did what they always do, beating and assaulting comrades protesting in Frankfurt, Germany was also at a summit of EU foreign ministers, where it blocked sanctions against Israel. As Israel's second-largest arms supplier, Germany clearly couldn't bring itself to part with billions of euros in blood money."

She described how various German city governments have offered to take in child refugees from Gaza, but said the federal government has refused to cooperate.

"It is the mark of a truly sick society when the state can deny help to severely ill children and face little opposition from the public," O'Brien said.

She concluded her statement by urging readers to "keep your eyes on Gaza."

To the German police, she said, "Your attempts to intimidate us only reveal that it is you that is frightened because we're still here, still fighting."

"The movement is growing, becoming sharper, more strategic. And deep down, you know the truth: no amount of violence, brutality, punishment, banishment, or criminalization will stop this movement until Palestine is free ó thalamh go speir (English: from earth to sky)."