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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/10/23/germany-bans-public-grieving-and-solidarity-with-palestine/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Germany bans public grieving and solidarity with Palestine</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Peoples Dispatch - October 23, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><img src="cid:ii_lo3cs2e60" alt="berlin-protest-germany-palestine.jpg" width="413" height="232"><br><p>Demonstrators in Berlin take the streets in solidarity with Palestine (Photo: Montecruz Foto)
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<p>Germany is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian community, with
roughly 80,000 Palestinians living in the country. For years, German
authorities have tried to stifle Palestinian activism in the country,
viewing it as a nuisance to its explicit policy of “unconditional
support for Israel.” Demonstrations, such as one earlier this year to
mark the 75<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Nakba, have been
sporadically banned in recent years and organizations, like the
Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun, have also come under
increasing scrutiny.</p>
<p>Yet the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine on a national
level has taken on entirely new dimensions since October 7. After a
small demonstration on Berlin’s busy Sonnenallee street on the evening
of October 7, the German media and body politic have been up in arms
about Palestinians supposedly celebrating terrorism and antisemitism on
German streets.</p>
<p>Talking points that were two weeks ago only uttered by far-right AfD
politicians are now being openly expressed by politicians from all
parliamentary parties in Germany. Playing off the idea of “imported
antisemitism,” the social democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz is now
arguing that “we must finally deport on a large scale” residents who do
not hold German citizenship and openly protest against Israel. The
Christian Democrats (CDU) are even demanding that the recognition of
Israel’s right to exist must become a precondition for German
citizenship.</p>
<p>Samidoun has been made into public enemy number one, as the media
presents the group as a bastion for “sympathizers of terror” that poses
“a particular danger, because as a secular organization, they are
building bridges between Islamists and radical leftists.” In a speech
before parliament on October 12, Chancellor Scholz personally announced a
ban on Samidoun along with a ban on the activities of Hamas in Germany.<span> </span></p>
<p>In Berlin specifically, which is home to one of the largest
Palestinian diaspora communities outside the Arab world, the authorities
have been particularly hostile towards any signs of solidarity with
Palestine. Since October 7, every demonstration explicitly or implicitly
referring to Palestine has been banned, leaving the roughly 30,000
Palestinians living in Berlin with no means of expressing their anguish
at the siege and bombardment of Gaza.</p>
<p>Solidarity groups have been trying to bypass this censorship by
avoiding political statements and focusing on humanitarian campaigning,
yet even demonstrations and slogans such as “Children in Gaza need help”
and “Solidarity with the civilian population in the Gaza Strip” were
banned. On October 13, the police went so far as to ban a demonstration
registered by the group “Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle
East” entitled “Jewish Berliners against violence in the Middle East.”<span> </span></p>
<p>Sonnenallee, a busy street in the district in which many Arab
migrants live, has become a focal point of dissent against Israel’s
attack on Gaza. The police patrol Sonnenallee every evening with tight
controls on the public squares. Racial profiling and <a href="https://twitter.com/RashadAlhindi/status/1714299436845740317?t=4_nNI2MJ1Suibse9asUrsA&s=19">brutal arrests</a> are commonplace and often recorded and posted to social media. One particular video shows police officers <a href="https://x.com/_UmutTv/status/1714748726827266456?t=BLLFpRPknegcH5eozE82Cg&s=09">stomping out a candle-lit vigil</a> with their boots.</p>
<p>In a letter to all Berlin schools, the city’s Department for
Education, Youth and Family set out strict guidelines on how to discuss
the situation in Palestine with students. “Any demonstrative action or
expression of opinion that can be understood as advocating or approving
of the attacks against Israel or support for the terrorist organizations
carrying them out, such as Hamas or Hezbollah, constitutes a threat to
school peace in the current situation and is prohibited.” According to
the letter, these may include the following: “visibly wearing relevant
clothing (for example, the kuffiyeh known as the Palestinian scarf),
displaying stickers and patches with inscriptions such as ‘free
Palestine’ or a map of Israel in the colors of Palestine (white, red,
black, green), and shouting ‘free Palestine!’ and demonstrating verbal
support for Hamas and its terrorism.”</p>
<p>At one high school on Sonnenallee, a 61-year-old teacher attempted to
confiscate a Palestinian flag from a 14-year-old student and ended up
in a physical altercation with a second 15-year-old student. The
parents’ association of the school tried to organize a demonstration
under the slogan “No place for racism, no place for violence” as a
reaction to the incident, yet it was promptly banned by the police,
ostensibly as a “a precautionary measure”. The Central Council of
Palestinians in Germany has since sent a letter in response to Berlin’s
Department for Education, expressing their “great concern about the
psychological and educational development [of their children]” in Berlin
schools.</p>
<p>As other European states are witnessing mass protests in solidarity
with Palestine, the German state has been able to use force and violence
to prevent such scenes on German streets. Yet it is unlikely that the
government will be able to ban these sentiments of solidarity
indefinitely, especially as the images of Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza
continue to circulate around the world.</p>
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