A protest against Israel’s operation in Gaza in Berlin last week got ugly as the protesters chanted anti-Jewish slogans.

In a video taken at a the rally and posted on the website of the Tablet Magazine, hundreds of protesters can be seen chanting in German, “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come on out and fight on your own”.

“We are currently experiencing in this country an explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews, which shocks and dismays all of us,” said Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in a statement following the rally.

“We would never in our lives have thought it possible anymore that anti-Semitic views of the nastiest and most primitive kind can be chanted on German streets,” he added.

There have been several anti-Israel protests in Europe in recent days, most notably in Paris, where far-left and Islamist extremists defied a ban on protests over the conflict between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza and took to the streets last Saturday.

The protesters wrought havoc in the Barbès in central Paris, confronting police with serious violence.

At least 33 people were arrested for throwing projectiles and assaulting police, and several people were injured in the clashes. Police responded by firing teargas and rubber bullets.

Rioters have also vandalized several Paris synagogues over the past several weeks, including a firebombing incident in the Val d'Oise area of Paris.