A pro-Hamas arson attack targeted the home of Andreas Büttner, the commissioner for combating antisemitism in the German state of Brandenburg.

German authorities confirmed that assailants set fire to a shed on Büttner’s property Sunday in the town of Templin, roughly 43 miles north of Berlin. The attackers also spray-painted an inverted red triangle—a symbol widely associated with Hamas—near the residence.

Büttner’s family was inside the home at the time of the attack, which marked the second incident targeting him in the past 16 months. His vehicle was previously vandalized with swastikas.

The inverted red triangle has emerged as a calling card of support for Hamas, particularly since the group’s October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel. In Gaza, the symbol has been used to mark Israeli military targets. In Europe and the United States, it has increasingly appeared at anti-Israel demonstrations and on social media, alarming Jewish communities and security officials.

Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor condemned the attack, warning that it reflects a broader ideological threat. “The radical part of the ‘Palestine solidarity’ movement is not only antisemitic, but terrorist,” Prosor wrote, adding that the hatred directed at Israel “goes hand in hand with hatred of our democracy.”

Büttner said the vandalism was not political expression but an explicit act of intimidation. “The red Hamas triangle is an internationally known sign of jihadist violence and antisemitic incitement,” he said. “This is not a protest, it is a threat.”

In a public statement, Büttner called the attack a “massive escalation” and said it would not weaken his resolve. “Such acts do not lead to me becoming quieter,” he wrote. “They strengthen me in what I do.”

Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke also denounced the attack, stating that violence “against people or things is and remains absolutely unacceptable,” and confirmed that a police investigation is underway.

Jewish leaders warned that the incident reflects a broader climate of intimidation aimed at silencing those who confront antisemitism. Jochen Feilcke, chairman of the German-Israeli Society Berlin and Brandenburg, described the attack as “Hamas’s terrorism applied on a small scale,” arguing that it was intended to frighten anyone pushing back against rising antisemitism.

Speaking to Tagesspiegel, Feilcke criticized segments of the political left for tolerating or amplifying rhetoric that can spill into violence.

The symbolism itself carries a dark historical resonance. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the red triangle was originally used by the Nazis to label political prisoners in concentration camps. While survivors later reclaimed it as a symbol of resistance, Holocaust scholars note that its recent adoption by Hamas and extremist activists represents a stark and troubling inversion—one that fuses modern jihadist violence with imagery rooted in Europe’s genocidal past.

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