German imperialism continues to openly support the genocidal Israeli state while at home it uses its own history of Nazi genocide to justify brutally attacking and censoring solidarity with the Palestinian people. The German capital Berlin is one of the front lines in the struggle to defend the right to defend Palestine in Europe. We must stand with those fighting back.
A genocide-enabling state
Germany is only second to the US in its supply of arms and weapons to Israel. In 2024, these exports totalled more than €160m worth of weaponry, including €3.7m for fighting vehicle components and €4.3m in ‘arms and ammunition’. The German state’s brazen support for Zionism displays itself in the Israeli flags flown at the front of many local government buildings and town halls, alongside the German and Ukrainian national flags. Along with Britain, Germany abstained on a UN General Assembly resolution vote last September on ending Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. This followed an International Court of Justice advisory opinion that their presence was ‘unlawful’. Recognising ‘the right of Israel to exist’ was added to the German citizenship test last July. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is condemned as anti-Semitic, and anti-BDS laws, in place since 2019, are being ramped up to prevent public funding of any groups or cultural bodies which criticise or call for the boycott of Israel. Visiting the Israeli state this May to mark the 60th anniversary of Germany establishing diplomatic ties with Israel, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier reassured his Israeli counterparts, ‘Germany is at your side, always’.
No right to resist
The right to march has been denied to Palestine protests in Berlin for most of this year despite legal battles. Static demonstrations require 48 hours notification and, in the case of Palestine protests, are often subject to late bans and time restrictions in order to prepare the ground for attacking and criminalising them. On 15 May in Berlin, over 600 riot police, including from the specialist ‘anti-terror’ arrest unit BFE, surrounded a Nakba Day march, of what police claimed was just over 1,000 demonstrators, using water cannon to prevent the protesters from marching, then attacked them anyway. Nakba Day march organisers reported at least 88 arrests, multiple people injured, denial of medical treatment and people being beat up in police stations. The media outcry and cover up which followed, based on police claims of 11 officers injured, saw leading Berlin politicians, including Mayor Kai Wegner of the Christian Democrats and Iris Spranger of the ‘centre-left’ Social Democrats, verbally rally to condemn protestors for their ‘cowardly’ and ‘brutal violence’ against the police, claiming this was an ‘attack against all of us’ and that ‘this has nothing to do with political protest.’
Berlin is home to one of the largest Arab communities in Europe, with the Palestinian diaspora alone numbering between 30,000 to 40,000. As one Berlin protester told FRFI, ‘the struggle to defend Palestine in Berlin is personal’. Despite this intimidation and brutal repression, multiple Palestine protests continue on a weekly basis with Palestinians and those who stand with them bravely calling out the German state and challenging its racist Arabic language ban on protests (only German and English are permitted): ‘Fuck you Germany’ and ‘Nazi’s raus’ (out) is the defiant cry of those under attack.
Unlike the Zionists, Palestinians are accorded no right to exist never mind resist. In Berlin, alongside the Arabic language ban on protests, the chant ‘from the river to the sea’ is also criminalised. Symbols of Palestinian identity and resistance, such as the keffiyeh, the red triangle and even the image of a fist on a flag, have been the target of bans, harassment, arrest and charges.
Zionism is racism
Similar to the US, Germany is using racist deportation to repress the movement. In April, a court ruled that two asylum seekers, one from Gaza and the other from Somalia, would not face inhumane or degrading reception conditions if they were sent back to Greece which is the country they first entered Europe through. This despite the finding that neither would be entitled to any state support in Greece. Mass deportations to Greece are now in the pipeline, with Palestinians a particular target due to their ongoing protests against genocide.
Those who dare to stand with them are also targeted. Irish Bloc Berlin campaigners have been harassed and arrested for using Gaelic chants of Freedom for Palestine ‘Saoirse don Phalaistín’ to challenge the language ban on protests. Earlier this year deportation orders were served on four Berlin residents for taking part in Palestine protests at Berlin’s Free University. This was served without a court case or any criminal convictions. After defiant street protests and legal challenges through April and May, the deportation of ‘the Berlin Four’, who are three EU citizens (two Irish, one Polish) and one US citizen, has been put on hold until the case is heard before a court.
Both the German and Zionist states are using the claim of an historic debt to the Jewish people, owing to the Nazi extermination campaign, to justify their actions today. For German imperialism it serves as a convenient cover for unconditional support for Israel, as it vies for position in the resource rich and strategically important Middle East. For the Zionist state this ‘debt’ allows it to justify its own criminal existence, always presenting itself as a victim, while securing its interests and serving as imperialism’s attack dog in the region. In a world of growing inter imperialist rivalry, Germany, as Europe’s leading power, is gambling on its ‘special relationship’ with ‘Israel’ paying off.
Dominic Mulgrew
