Version imprimableThe operation of this repressive apparatus cannot be understood without the historical and political framework that supports it: the German Staatsräson, reason of state or public policy which places the unconditional defense of the State of Israel as a central pillar of national policy. So much so that, even as other countries are beginning to criticise Israel’s genocide, Germany once again demonstrated its unconditional solidarity with the Zionist entity on May 23, 2025. Not only is Israel protected by the Staatsräson, but so are its war criminals. Armin Laschet, the CDU’s [1] chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, stated this week in an interview in which he repeatedly cited the Staatsräson, that if Netanyahu comes to visit, he will not be arrested on German soil, despite the international arrest warrant against him.
This stance, adopted as a supposed attempt at historical reparation for the Holocaust, has created a dangerous dynamic. By conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, any criticism of the State of Israel is criminalised, even when it comes from anti-Zionist Jewish activists or is based on human rights principles. After decades of criminalisation and attempts to obscure the history and demands of the Palestinian people, the German state has for 20 months been implementing authoritarian policies reminiscent of the last century to attack the movement.
The turning point came on October 7, 2023. Almost all German politicians showed their unconditional support for Israel, regardless of its genocidal words and actions. This required suppressing all solidarity with Palestine in the city with the largest Palestinian community in Europe.
The repression and criminalisation carried out by the German state can only be understood as a vicious circle involving politicians, the media, the police, and the judicial system.
Invoking Staatsräson, the German Interior Ministry has declared slogans such as "From the river to the sea" to be Hamas terrorist propaganda, giving police carte blanche to violently intervene in demonstrations.
Since then, Berlin has been the scene of mass arrests, arbitrary detentions, and disproportionate use of force by the authorities. Peaceful demonstrations have been systematically repressed. The use of symbols such as keffiyehs or Palestinian flags, and even simply speaking Arabic at rallies, has led to arrests. Among the absurd measures are a ban on drumming, singing, or giving speeches in languages other than German or English, consolidating unprecedented police control over freedom of expression and assembly.
The student movement, the driving force of protest in many parts of the world, has been the target of fierce attacks from politicians and the media. Encampments, symbolic events, and university occupations have been repressed with police violence and threats of expulsion. In schools, students and teachers face sanctions for expressing solidarity with Palestine, amid a climate of institutional censorship. Many of these students have been reported by their own universities, and dozens of lawsuits are underway. Students and teachers are also repressed in schools and are not allowed to express their pro-Palestinian opinions. Keffiyehs, Palestinian flags, and other symbols of solidarity are banned. These prohibitions come from the Berlin government itself, specifically from Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch of the CDU.
At the same time, in an increasingly racist and media-fueled environment, dozens of deportations are being carried out, primarily targeting Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Four Western citizens, three of them from the EU, were threatened with immediate deportation for their participation in student protests, without any judicial convictions. Their deportation orders, currently under appeal, have been pushed through by direct pressure from the Berlin government. Meanwhile, asylum applications from Palestinians from Gaza are indefinitely halted.
The consequences of this repressive climate also extend to the workplace. People have lost their jobs for attending demonstrations, sharing content on social media, or simply expressing their solidarity with Palestine, and many have been victims of doxxing and hate campaigns in the media. Among those affected are public officials, museum guides, [social workers-https://www.theleftberlin.com/two-girls-centres-shut-down-because-of-private-instagram-posts/], journalists, and private sector employees. The fear of unemployment and high legal costs act as a form of economic and psychological punishment.
The German press, largely aligned with the official narrative while ignoring or lying about what is happening in Gaza, is central to this climate of harassment. As mentioned above, reports in public and private media name and shame activists, accusing them of antisemitism, while criminalising the entire movement in general. Journalists critical of government and police actions or covering the repression have been arrested or attacked. German press associations remain silent in the face of these attacks, while leveling unfounded accusations against non-Zionist media and journalists.
A worrying case that will continue if not reversed is the closure of Red.media, one of the few left-wing media outlets that covered both the genocide in Gaza and internal repression. The outlet faced a prolonged disinformation campaign, culminating on May 20 with the inclusion of its founder, Hüseyin Doğru, on the EU sanctions list, which has resulted in his having to leave his country.
Social media is also subject to state surveillance and repression. Activists have received notifications that they are being investigated for posts critical of Zionism, in some cases on charges as serious as condoning terrorism or Holocaust denial, even though the facts under investigation do not support this. Some of them face prosecution.
In addition, social and cultural organizations have had their public subsidies withdrawn for collaborating with groups such as Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden im Nahost (Jewish Voices for Peace in the Middle East), considered "anti-Semitic" for their criticism of the Israeli government, with Aryan Germans, once again, defining who the good Jews are.
Citing media and police reports, the latest report on the protection of the Constitution, presented on May 21 by the Berlin Senate, describes the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement as an enemy of the constitutional order (pp. 25-30). This anticipates a new cycle of repression against a peaceful and global movement that, ironically, was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 2018.
The German state, once again using media articles as an excuse, also employs preventive measures of an intimidating nature. Activists are visited by the police before key dates (May 1, May 15, October 7) and are prohibited, without a clear legal basis, from participating in protests.
After some arrests, a few people are held in detention centers for days as a deterrent, in what appears to be a systematic strategy to demoralise the movement.
On May 15, in Berlin, at the commemoration of the 77th anniversary of the start of the Nakba, we witnessed many of these repressive measures. The police again prohibited the demonstration from marching, leaving only a static gathering. This rally was surrounded by an excessive presence of riot police, who arrived prepared with water cannons, pepper spray, non-regulation gloves, and dogs. After several hours of brutal arrests of people chanting slogans such as "from the river to the sea," "Zionists are fascists," and "Israel kills children," the police declared the rally over and the worst police brutality we have ever experienced began. The medical services present recorded 33 injured people, with broken noses and head injuries, among others; four people were seriously injured, many of whom ended up in hospital. On several occasions, the police prevented the medics from doing their work and even assaulted them.
There were 88 arrests, with such violence that several of those arrested lost consciousness. Among other tactics, the Berlin police used the manoeuvre that killed George Floyd, and once again, the cries of "I can’t breathe" were heard. Several of the detainees were taken to the detention center, where some spent up to 50 hours with only water and stale bread. The excuse for not letting them out earlier was to prevent these people from attending further demonstrations.
While several independent journalists sympathetic to the Palestinian cause were arrested and generally prevented from carrying out their work, the Zionist press, some of them openly Nazi, was protected by the police.
This press did its job as a police spokesperson and has been talking for a week about the police officers injured that day, most of them with bruises on their hands from beating protesters, and one who, in the chaos they caused, fell to the ground along with several other protesters and, in the scuffle, was inevitably trampled.
Politicians use press articles to call for more restrictions and prohibitions, as well as greater police protection. And the judiciary takes note and assigns Nakba cases to the state attorney general.
The rapid decline of the rule of law in Germany and its ambition to once again become Europe’s greatest military power should raise eyebrows for anyone with a little knowledge of history, but the German population remains largely indifferent and inactive. Thus, for now, only coordinated international pressure seems likely to awaken these dormant consciences.
Interview with lawyer, Benjamin Düsberg
Following the police attacks on the Nakba demonstration, Roser spoke with Benjamin Düsberg, who, among other things, is the lawyer for some of the four people arrested in Berlin.
Before the march commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, I believe one of the solidarity lawyers went to the lower court to fight for the right to demonstrate, which was initially granted. And what happened next?
Exactly. For several months now, pro-Palestinian demonstrations have generally been banned from marching, which is a scandal in itself. And surprisingly, for the Nakba demonstration, the administrative court overturned the Berlin police’s decision to ban the march, so it seemed like the Nakba demonstration would go ahead. The police then appealed this decision, and the higher administrative court overturned the administrative court’s decision and reinstated the ban.
But can the police ban the march? Do they have the power to do so, or is it a judicial decision?
Under Berlin’s law regulating gatherings, the police may, in specific circumstances, have the power to ban demonstrations. But, of course, this requires a solid legal justification. This means demonstrating why the ban is necessary to maintain public safety. But in fact, there is no valid legal justification for such a ban. There is no empirical evidence that a demonstration causes fewer problems if a march is not allowed. Quite the contrary: the potential for escalation is much greater if the march is not permitted. Aside from that empirical question, the freedom to march is a fundamental element of the fundamental right to freedom of assembly.
Berlin police argued that pro-Palestine demonstrations, in general, tend to violate the law, and that, to prevent this, the marches should be banned. The administrative court, which is responsible for reviewing such police decisions, rejected this argument, but it was overturned by the higher administrative court.
And you were there, weren’t you? Do you know how many people were arrested?
According to the protest organisers’ figures, around 88 people were arrested.
Were you able to talk to any of them? Were you able to help them?
Yes, I had contact with some of them, but, of course, there were too many arrests to be able to contact them all. Two protesters were held in pretrial detention at the police station, one of them for over 50 hours. The argument was to prevent them from participating in other pro-Palestine demonstrations, which would supposedly incite them to commit crimes related to the demonstrations.
What were they accused of?
One of those people was charged with resisting and assaulting police officers.
I assume you’ve participated in some pro-Palestinian marches. Have you seen an escalation of police violence during this one?
I’m not sure this is an escalation, because the repression of pro-Palestinian demonstrations is generally very intense. But the images and videos I’ve seen of this demonstration are truly horrifying. Yes, I’ve seen many things, but this time it left me stunned.
The Nakba demonstration appears to have broken the record for arrests, but according to some newspapers, there are only about 7,000 cases in Berlin. Considering that the demonstrations have been mostly, if not almost entirely, peaceful, what are people being charged with?
Demonstrations almost always begin with so-called "crimes of opinion," that is, slogans deemed illegal by the police, such as "from the river to the sea," among others. Police arrests often occur without warning, so even the slightest defensive movements by those arrested or bystanders often result in accusations of resisting or assault, which in turn lead to further violent arrests. University occupations carry charges such as trespassing. In some cases, even linking arms during such occupations is considered resisting law enforcement officers.
There have been some positive verdicts in the courts recently. Trial judges have not considered slogans like “From The River To The Sea” or "Zionists are fascists" to be symbols of Hamas. Can you tell us more about this and what it means now on the streets?
The slogan "Zionists are fascists, they kill children and civilians" was prosecuted as "incitement to hatred." The Berlin prosecutor’s office had alleged that the word "Zionists" was used as a code word for "Jews," and therefore the statement incited hatred against Jews living in Germany. The Tiergarten District Court acquitted my client. It found that the statement was made on the occasion of Israeli President Herzog’s visit to Berlin in February 2024 and protested the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza, and was therefore protected by freedom of expression. The ruling is final.
On the other hand, the Tiergarten District Court issued a ruling on May 21, 2025, after three days of exhaustive evidence: The slogan "from the river to the sea" is not a Hamas trademark. The person accused of shouting the slogan with the suffix "Palestine will be free" at a protest camp at the Berlin Federal University on May 7, 2024, was therefore acquitted.
The court should have clarified as long overdue the absurd interpretation that the slogan was a Hamas trademark. While the physical annihilation of the Palestinian population continues in Gaza and the Israeli government is effectively implementing its vision of a state territory "from the river to the sea," a central protest slogan of solidarity with Palestine, and thus the Palestine solidarity movement as such, is being criminalised in Germany. This demonstrates, as if under a magnifying glass, that German state power is completely indifferent to the fate of the Palestinian population, even to the point of genocide, and is instead complicit in Israel’s actions.
The ruling is not yet final, as the prosecution has filed an appeal.
In short, both rulings are very important because thousands of criminal cases were initiated as a result of these statements, and the police broke up many demonstrations. I hope the police will change their behaviour during demonstrations and take the fundamental right to freedom of expression seriously.
Not only are the media outlets denouncing people on their platforms, but there seems to be an increase in the number of people being arrested at demonstrations immediately after being pointed out by a Zionist journalist. What are they being accused of? Is it normal in these types of cases for the police to arrest people based on their word and without evidence?
This collaboration between so-called "journalists" and the police is alarming. These "journalists" are not interested in journalistic ethics and professionalism, but rather in creating news that sells well while simultaneously delegitimising protests in solidarity with Palestine. These "journalists" provoke protesters with defamatory language, aggressive and intrusive filming and photography, and even physical assault, until there are perceived or real counterreactions, which these "journalists" record, publish, report to the police, and file charges. This, in turn, serves certain media outlets and the police as proof of the protesters’ alleged willingness to resort to violence. Some particularly active protesters are a favorite target of these "journalists" and are the subject of public smear campaigns. These "journalists" almost unanimously label the anti-genocide protests as "Jew-hating" or "Israel-hating."
25 May 2025
Translated by David Fagan for International Viewpoint from viento sur.
