The major powers continue to fully support the Netanyahu regime and its murderous war against the Palestinians in Gaza. Millions of people around the world have been protesting against this measure for more than a month.
Also in Germany, thousands of people are defying the pro-Israel stance of the Social Democrat-led federal government and the Bundestag (parliament), to participate in pro-Palestinian protests.
In Berlin, a demonstration bringing together more than 5,000 participants, including entire families with children, took place from the main station to Großer Stern on Saturday afternoon. Slogans included “Freedom for Gaza”, “Freedom for Palestine” and “Germany’s finances, Israel’s bombs”. Another exclamation was: “The German media are lying, don’t be fooled!” » At 4:00 p.m., out of respect for the victims of Gaza, the entire demonstration transformed into an impressive silent march lasting 15 minutes.
A large police force was present. The main organizer of the demonstration declared at the start of the march, to applause: “We are not here to show hatred, but peace. We are not here because we hate Jews – we are here because we stand against injustice in Palestine. We have lived in peace with the Jews of the Middle East for centuries. » Protests took place every week in the German capital.
People also took to the streets in many other cities this past weekend. There were around 1,000 in Leipzig, more than 2,000 in Stuttgart and more than 1,500 in Düsseldorf. In Hamburg, all demonstrations against Israeli ethnic cleansing are banned for five weeks. “Pro-Palestinian” gatherings are prohibited by general police decree. This decree, issued for the first time on October 16 for three days, has since been extended nine times.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, in addition to Düsseldorf, demonstrations against the genocide took place in Cologne, Bielefeld, Paderborn, Herne and Münster. In Cologne, around 3,000 participants responded to the call of the Palestinians and Jews for Peace initiative and took part in a peace march on Sunday afternoon. The demonstration was registered with 1,000 people, but this figure was three times higher.
In Münster, an initially authorized pro-Palestinian demonstration was banned 45 minutes before its start and limited to a small gathering in the center, without a flag and subject to the strictest restrictions. A previous police ban had been lifted the day before by the Münster administrative court.
The different court decisions concerned the assessment of a slogan which the Münster police and the Münster administrative court assess differently. Münster police chief Alexandra Dorndorf considered the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be a crime. She claimed that the statement not only called into question the right of the State of Israel to exist, but also called for the destruction of the Israeli people. On the other hand, the Münster Administrative Court rightly ruled that the slogan could also mean equal coexistence for all inhabitants of Israeli territory, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
One of the largest demonstrations in North Rhine-Westphalia took place last Saturday in Düsseldorf, with more than 1,500 participants. The demonstrators not only had to brave the pouring rain, but also the bans and police harassment. The police originally wanted to introduce conditions banning two German words for “genocide” in Düsseldorf – as before in Berlin and other cities. But the applicants won their case in court and posters of the Sozialistische Gleichheitsparteis (SGP) could therefore be displayed, demanding an immediate end to the genocide.
The main slogan was “For freedom, justice, human dignity and peace in Palestine”. In the speeches, the role of the German government – especially Scholz, Habeck and Baerbock – was sharply criticized. The slogan most often shouted was: “Shame on you!” » Many hand-painted posters also had a similar orientation and expressed outrage that, for example, German Palestinians were being deprived of their basic democratic rights. “Equal human rights for all” was one of the demands.
In Göttingen (Niedersachsen), a demonstration took place on Saturday afternoon with a strong participation of students. A poster referring to the genocide was banned by the police. He said: “If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done under slavery and European colonialism, the Holocaust and Canada’s genocide against indigenous peoples, look at what you are doing now for Gaza, Palestine. »
At the SGP publications table, IYSSE leaflets opposing the censorship of their event at Humboldt University Berlin were received with great interest by the students. Several visitors to the information stand expressly thanked the WSWS for openly opposing the intolerable government propaganda.
In Stuttgart, hundreds of police officers were present in the city center on Sunday. They were unable to prevent a large turnout of more than 2,000 participants on Schillerplatz and a demonstration in the city center. Yet, here as elsewhere, protesters have been victims of harassment, confiscations and criminal investigations. A 32-year-old woman is under investigation for allegedly including “prohibited content” in her speech.
A WSWS team distributed the WSWS view in leaflet form, describing the events in Gaza as a “warning”: “Imperialism’s ruling classes, desperate and cornered, will stop at nothing to secure their global interests , including mass killings. .” The necessary response was clearly stated in the declaration: “The future of humanity requires that the hold of the financial oligarchy on society be broken, which requires the building of a mass socialist movement of the class factory Girl. »
The team was able to discuss this perspective with many participants. They strongly opposed the official accusation that the demonstrators were “anti-Semitic”. One young woman explained: “We are not here because we are anti-Semitic, but we are here because we want to stop the killings and the expulsions. There is nothing more than that. Those who say otherwise are liars or people who want to incite people to turn against us.”
Another said: “The accusation that we are anti-Semitic is a big lie. People here stand for justice and oppose the oppression and murder of so many people in Gaza. We came here to defend the Palestinians, who have been trying to live in a prison that has been open for 75 years. … What is being done to them is a huge injustice.
One participant said: “We are called anti-Semites simply because we protest Israel’s war crimes and genocide. We are not against the Jews. On the contrary, there are Jews among us. We are not anti-Semitic, but we are against this genocide, we are against the death of children and against the idea of exterminating an entire people.”
Several clearly spoke out against the German government’s unequivocal support for Israel. One participant said: “I don’t think it’s a good thing at all for Germany to support Israel, to send weapons, for example, or to generally just publicly support Israel. » One woman said: “We also want to show the German government that their support for Israel is completely wrong at the moment. »
A participant named Erna protested the general trend toward war and the government’s massive spending on weapons. She said: “I am absolutely against war. We must invest much more in peace, but not in [tyske våpenprodusenter] Heckler & Koch or Rheinmetall or Mauser. She called austerity measures targeting education and social spending a “waste”, adding: “Education is the essential thing that can save us from war and social inequality.”
Journalists repeatedly had heated discussions with protesters about the possible solution and whether Palestinians and Jews could live together peacefully in the Middle East. In this context, the program of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) calling for the United Socialist States of the Middle East aroused great interest, and many accepted the SGP manifesto for the European elections for study.
Muhammad explained: “For me, the demand for equality between people is a logical demand that I support. » A young Palestinian woman, asked what she thought of the call for Israeli and Palestinian workers to join forces, replied: “I think it’s right, it’s right.”
Mustafa, who held a sign that read: “Stop the war!” said he wanted to alert people to what was happening, to stop the war. “People, children, families who have nothing to do with politics are dying,” he said. “We must take a stand. We all live in the same world, we all have one heart and we all have almost the same problems. Whatever happens, the war must end.
