BERLIN (Middle East Eye) – German police have banned all pro-Palestinian demonstrations until 2 May citing ‘antisemitic’ statements made by some protesters during recent protests.
Following two years of pandemic-related restrictions, Sunday sees the return of Berlin’s May Day rallies.
At least 15 separate demonstrations are scheduled for the comeback events. In the past, protests like these have drawn tens of thousands of people with an atmosphere somewhere between a street party and a full-blown riot.
Yet in an unprecedented move, police have banned all pro-Palestinian protests until 2 May.
At least one was scheduled for Friday 29 April under the title “protest against Israeli aggression in Al-Quds”. The ban applied to this and any other “replacement protests,” which organizers sometimes use to try to circumvent bans.
In announcing the decision, Berlin police highlighted “unacceptable antisemitism” at pro-Palestine protests last week, where they say some of the several hundred protesters on 22 and 23 April made ‘antisemitic’ statements.
“We had to witness criminal acts, antisemitic slogans, and exclamations of the worst kind,” said Berlin’s Interior Minster Iris Spranger. “That is totally unacceptable.”
Berlin is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East and has more than 25,000 residents with a Palestinian background. Many live in Kreuzberg and Neukölln, the neighborhoods in which pro-Palestinian protests, including last week’s, typically take place.
Yet many Palestinians in Germany complain about what has been called “tabooisation” of their experience, in which Palestinian identity is not recognized by wider society.
“The mere fact of being Palestinian is enough to be criminalized, especially if you raise a political voice,” said Aicha Jamal, a spokesperson for the activist organization, Migrantifa, which demonstrates for social rights and against racism.
In the past year, several journalists with Palestinian roots have been fired over alleged antisemitic statements. In the case of Nemi el-Hassan, these included liking Instagram posts by the organization Jewish Voice for Peace.
To ban this weekend’s protests, police cited an amendment to the Assembly Act introduced during the pandemic, which allows banning protests if the police say they pose a risk to public safety.