Germans Are Defying Police Repression to Protest for Gaza
Berlin: On May 15, about a thousand people gathered in Berlin’s Kreuzberg to protest Israel's genocidal strikes in Gaza. Police arrested 50 of them.
The occasion was Nakba Day, which commemorates the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their land in 1948. 'Nakba' is ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic. Tens of thousands of people had turned up in London for a similar protest that day. Other European cities saw similar movement.
In the year and a half since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, and October 13 when Israel launched its still-ongoing military operation into Gaza, there’s been a decline in both the frequency and intensity of pro-Palestine demonstrations in Berlin.
However, this trend witnessed a dramatic turnaround on June 21, when what is by some estimates one of the largest pro-Palestine mass protests in Berlin took place. As per the police, 15,000 people showed up. The number was “at least 30,000,” as per the organisers.
“It’s the power of the grassroots movements in Berlin, and the power of social media that brought all these people together,” said Abed Hassan, one of the main organisers. Hassan was born in Germany, but has roots in Gaza.
Pro-Palestine Protesters from across Germany rally at the Parliament in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Anand D.
On the day of the protest, people from all over Germany took buses to reach Berlin.
“Some are even from outside Germany. One of the protesters came from Canada,” Hassan said.
Protestors like Hassan have kept the movement going in the face of escalating state reprisal and censorship. Pro-Palestine protests, however, have been large numbers of people with roots in West Asia, and also from other immigrant people in Berlin.
For instance, a young Chinese couple who moved to Berlin for work was there in full Palestinian colours. One of them who wished to be identified only as Liu said, “You can’t expect other people to support your cause without you supporting theirs.”
At the starting point of the protest in front of the German Parliament, the massive crowd represented a mix of all kinds of people – from the Irish to young Germans, from leftists to immigrants. Liu expressed how important such protests were for him. “I envy their freedom to voice and debate opinions in Berlin. But please don’t forget to strive for common grounds to end wars. And please don’t forget that the liberal democracies of the West are – still and by far – the only countries with meaningful commitment and capacity to defend peace and freedom,” he said.
Pushback against censorship
When asked whether the long-term interest in the protests had been flagging, Hassan said that while interest is huge, police repression stops many. "People have families, they have kids. In protests in Berlin, especially, the police always escalate when a small problem happens. So people don’t want to come," he said.
Activists and human rights watchdogs have criticised the German government’s handling of protests connected to the Israel's strikes in Gaza since October 2023.
The Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Michael O’Flaherty wrote a letter to the German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt early in June, asking him to ensure people's rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, while also criticising the government’s actions in criminalising the protesters.
Just days after this letter, although not because of it, a Berlin court acquitted a student who had been charged with saying “from the river to the sea” at a protest in May 2024. Then German interior minister Nancy Faeser had banned the slogan for being a symbol of Hamas, which is proscribed in Germany. While the court’s decision upheld free speech and the arbitrariness of the student’s arrest, such arrests have had a chilling effect on discourse around Israel and Palestine.
However, from the starting point to the end of the march in front of the German parliament at the iconic Potsdamer Platz – where remains of the Berlin Wall are still to be seen – chants of “from the river to the sea” were raised by many demonstrators even under heavy police scrutiny.
As the demonstrators assembled for the final rally and announcements, a handful of 'counter-protesters' with Israel flags caused a commotion, but dozens of policemen acted swiftly to separate them from the rest of the crowd. The largest anti-war and pro-Gaza demonstration thus passed smoothly, without any untoward incidents.
Police separate counter-protesters from the main crowd in Berlin. Photo: Anand D.
State versus people
Despite growing public outcry against Israel’s action in Gaza, the German government has maintained, “Israel has a right to defend itself." It is only recently that German chancellor Friedrich Merz was for the first time seen raising a critical voice in relation to the horrific death toll in Gaza when he said: “I no longer understand what the goal of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip is.”
However, any concrete action on restricting arms deliveries or a change in diplomatic direction are yet to be seen from the German government.
People from all sections of German society made their presence felt at the Berlin protests. Photo: Anand D.
The position of the German government can be easy to confuse with the position of Germany’s people.
But, in fact, a recent poll by the German state broadcaster ARD, showed that 63% of Germans feel Israel’s actions in Gaza “go too far.” An even higher 73% find it unacceptable that civilians are hit in the process of Israel’s pursuit of its stated war goals of fighting Hamas. On the more critical issues of German weapon supplies to Israel, 43% support a reduction and 30% support a complete stop. Only 17% support a continuation of weapon’s exports as it is.
Hassan and the organisers of the May 15 protest say the primary demand of the protests is to force the German government to take concrete steps towards stopping the destruction and increasing death toll in Gaza. “We demand sanctions on Israel; we demand an end to the genocide and the apartheid system which is the root cause of the problem," he said.
Hassan adds that even if there is little hope, it is both a moral duty as well as an obligation of anyone watching from the sidelines to make their voice heard.
Anand D. is a journalist based in Germany.
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