Since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, reports of alleged anti-Semitic crimes have been increasing in Germany. It is not always easy to correctly classify slogans.
The now well over 2000 investigations nationwide in the context of the Middle East conflict pose major challenges for the police and the judiciary in Germany. This is also due to the fact that the criminal liability of individual slogans that can be heard at demonstrations or read on banners is not assessed in the same way everywhere.
According to a survey conducted by the German Press Agency in the country’s justice ministries, charges have been brought or penal orders applied for in several dozen cases relating to the Middle East conflict since the terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Legally binding convictions have only been made in isolated cases.
According to the law enforcement authorities, a total of three defendants were sentenced to fines in Berlin. In November, a demonstrator received a suspended prison sentence of eight months for, among other things, serious breach of the peace and resistance against law enforcement officers.
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In Berlin, where there have been particularly many pro-Palestinian protests in recent months, most of the more than 1,200 investigations are not related to demonstrations, but concern statements made on social media.
The Central Office for State Protection of the Attorney General’s Office in Hamburg processed a total of 349 investigations with a Middle East connection between October 12, 2023 and May 28. The proportion of crimes classified by the Central Office as anti-Semitic is around 35 percent, the press spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s offices, Mia Sperling-Karstens, said in response to a request.
However, she pointed out that this assessment could change in the course of the investigation. In her written response, she stated: “In addition, the distinction between (purely) anti-Israel or anti-Israel and (also) anti-Semitic motivations is sometimes difficult.”
Many offenses of expression
Overall, the majority of the proceedings, which are related to the Hamas attack and the Gaza war, in which more than 37,000 Palestinians were killed according to the health authorities, concern incitement, condoning criminal acts and distributing propaganda material from unconstitutional organizations. In some cases, investigations are being carried out for destroying Israeli flags.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, charges have been brought or a penal order has been requested in seven cases. Some of these involved statements relating to National Socialism and the Holocaust. In North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg, cases relating to the Middle East conflict are not recorded statistically.
In particular, the slogan “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free”, which is also used by many protesting students, is a cause for controversy. Geographically, the area outlined in it includes the State of Israel, the West Bank, where Palestinians and Jewish settlers live, and the Gaza Strip.
The public use of some slogans is punishable
In Bavaria, where 238 investigations were initiated “in the context of the Israel-Hamas war” from October 7, 2023 to around the end of April, the Attorney General’s Office is relying on the ban on activities of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas issued by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) at the beginning of November and sees this as having cleared up all question marks.
A spokesman for the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office explains: “Since this point at the latest, the Bavarian law enforcement authorities have confirmed the initial suspicion of the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations.” The public use of this slogan is therefore punishable. This regulation does not in principle require any special context for its use.
The ban, which was issued in response to the killing of more than 1,200 people and the abduction of more than 250 hostages by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups, states that the ban also extends to the slogan “From the river to the sea”. It remains to be seen whether this will stand.
A case study
In December, the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled on a protest rally in Düsseldorf. In its ruling, it said that without further clarification of the facts by the court, which could not be done in the short time available, it remains “unclear whether the slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ or variations thereof is a prohibited symbol of Hamas”.
In a ruling a few days ago, the Mannheim Regional Court fundamentally questioned whether the slogan, which refers to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, can be considered a symbol of Hamas. The only wording found in its 2017 charter is “Hamas rejects any alternative to the complete and unrestricted liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”
The slogan used by supporters of various groups and ideologies “does not necessarily indicate that Israel would be destroyed, but only refers to the historical territory of Palestine (Mandate of Palestine), which is the reference point of the Palestinians’ historical homeland, regardless of their political affiliation.” The case at issue in these proceedings related to a rally in May 2023.
Challenges for the police
For police officers who have to decide whether or not to intervene during demonstrations, this decision from Mannheim will definitely result in “additional work,” says Jens Mohrherr from the police union. The different assembly laws in the federal states are already a challenge.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior, meanwhile, maintains that the statement symbolizes the goal of a Palestinian state at any price proclaimed by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization throughout the EU. “This goal of Hamas logically presupposes the destruction of the State of Israel,” said a spokesman. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimates that Hamas has around 450 supporters in this country.
Islamist groups such as Muslim Interaktiv, which recently gathered in Essen and Hamburg, should be viewed separately from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, says the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang. These Islamists are using the Gaza war to spread their narrative of the “infidel West, which allegedly wants to oppress Muslims and force them to assimilate.”
The Middle East conflict is only a means to an end. The main focus is on “spreading one’s own archaic interpretation of Islam”. The majority of participants in pro-Palestinian demonstrations are not extremists. However, some of the demonstrators show a solidarity of extremists of various stripes, including Islamists, German and Turkish left- and right-wing extremists, and supporters of extremist secular Palestinian organizations.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
