Yitzhak Melamed

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2018 assault in Bonn

On July 11, 2018, while a visiting scholar for the University of Bonn, Melamed was in Hofgarten Park  [ de ] to hold a public lecture when he was attacked by a 20-year old man, who shouted antisemitic abuse at him and a female professor in English and German before repeatedly hitting Melamed in the head, knocking off his kippah. Shortly after, Melamed was pushed to the ground, beaten, and handcuffed by police who had been alerted by the colleague. Police officials stated that the officers had mistakenly assumed that Melamed was the aggressor because they saw him chase after the other man upon arrival. [8] [9] [10] The Chief of Bonn Police Ursula Brohl-Sowa  [ de ] and Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Herbert Reul issued apologies the next day. All four officers involved in the incident were investigated for obstruction of justice for attempting to pursuade Melamed into keeping quiet about the injuries he sustained during the arrest, an allegation the officers consistently denied and instead stating that Melamed had resisted heavily. [11] [12] They were subsequently transferred to other posts, but no charges were brought against any of them because the investigation concluded that no illegal conduct had occurred. [13] The attacker, a German citizen of Palestinian descent with a prior conviction for armed robbery, was caught on July 17, after he was reported for threatening passerby with a knife in Hofgarten and sentenced to four years imprisonment on October 14, 2019 on one charge of Volksverhetzung . [14] Melamed criticised the conduct of police and has compared the German police's behaviour to that of the Nazi era Schutzpolizei, who he noted killed his uncle, an aunt, and two of his grandparents, while also calling for normalization between Israelis and Palestinians. [9] [15] [16]

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References

  1. Schumacher, Elizabeth (March 18, 2019). "Probe into German police mix-up in anti-Semitic attack nixed". Deutsche Welle.
  2. "Geschlagener jüdischer Professor wirft deutscher Polizei "Lügen" vor". Der Standard (in German). July 16, 2018.
  3. "A companion to Spinoza". University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  4. "Yitzhak Y. Melamed". Department of Philosophy. Johns Hopkins University. 11 February 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  5. "Yitzhak Y. Melamed". academia.edu. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  6. Melamed, Yitzhak; Charles Ramond; Jack Stetter (2019). "The First Draft of Spinoza's Ethics". Spinoza in 21st-Century French and American Philosophy. Bloomsbury Academics. Bloomsbury. pp. 93–112. ISBN   978-1-3500-6730-1. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 4, 2021.
  7. Melamed, Yitzhak. "Michael LeBuffe, From Bondage to Freedom: Spinoza on Human Excellence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), Pp. 253" via academia.edu.{{cite web}}: External link in |via= (help) (Review).
  8. ""Proper Bildung" der Bonner Polizei". haGalil (in German). 2018-07-15.
  9. 1 2 "Jewish professor beaten by police says he'll keep coming back to Germany". Times of Israel.
  10. "US-Wissenschaftler nach Attacke in Bonn: "Natürlich werde ich auch meine Kippa tragen"". Rheinische Post (in German). 2018-07-21.
  11. "Irrtümliche Attacke im Bonner Hofgarten: Polizei-Anwalt widerspricht jüdischem Professor". Rheinische Post (in German). 2018-09-10.
  12. "Auch Polizei hatte Professor geschlagen: Bonn gegen Antisemitismus". euronews (in German). 2018-07-20.
  13. "Ermittlungen gegen Polizisten eingestellt". Jüdische Allgemeine (in German). 2019-03-19.
  14. Grunert, Marlene (2019-10-15). "Urteil nach Angriff auf jüdischen Professor in Bonn". Frankfurter Allgemeine (in German).
  15. Rüdiger, Johanna; Zinkler, Diana (2018-07-14). "Antisemitismus-Opfer kritisiert: "Das ist abscheuliches Polizeiverhalten"". Berliner Morgenpost (in German).
  16. "Der jüdische Professor und sein Ärger mit der deutschen Polizei". Stern (in German). 2019-03-19.
Yitzhak Y. Melamed
Born (1968-03-07) March 7, 1968 (age 56)
Bnei Brak, Israel
NationalityIsraeli
Occupation Philosopher
ChildrenPandora and Rico Melamed
Parent(s)Moshe and Sophie Melamed
Academic background
Education Tel Aviv University
Yale University
Thesis  (2005)
Doctoral advisor Michael Della Rocca