On Saturday, November 4, thousands of people marched in Berlin in solidarity with Palestine and demanding an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel. In the march called by various groups including the Palestine Campaign, Palestine Speaks, Jewish Bund, Migrantifa Berlin, Diem 25, and Klass gegen Klass, people marched holding placards and banners that read Stop Genocide, Free Palestine, Anti-Zionism is not Anti-semitism, etc. Protesters also raised the Palestine flag over the Neptune Fountain in Berlin. The march took place under heavy police surveillance due to the hostile attitude of the government towards pro-Palestine protests in Germany. Meanwhile, sections within the conservative Christian Democratic Union and other right-wing groups came out against the march and accused the government of not properly implementing the November 2 ban imposed on pro-Hamas activity and the prisoner solidarity group Samidoun.
The Palestine Campaign said that “the German government led by Olaf Scholz continues to offer Israel its unconditional support. The city of Berlin banned almost all protests in solidarity with Palestine, banned symbols of Palestinian identity from our schools, and triggered a wave of police violence against Palestinians and their supporters, with hundreds of people arrested. In the face of this escalation of the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine and restrictions on free expression in Germany, we need to take to the streets for Palestine, in more numbers than ever before.”
On Friday, hundreds of students and employees of the Free University of Berlin also organized a Palestine solidarity demonstration. They condemned the criminalization of Palestine solidarity in Germany, especially the ban on Samidoun.
Klass gegen Klass stated that “even the UN speaks of war crimes in the Israeli bombings of hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, while in Germany, the government, all established parties, and the media justify genocide carried out by Israeli army in the name of the “fight against Hamas terror.”
Socialist German Workers’ Youth (SDAJ) stated that “the ground offensive and Israel’s war against Palestine must be stopped immediately, humanitarian aid and rescue measures should be started immediately, the benign German silence on the war must be ended and the German Bundeswehr must not intervene in the conflict under any circumstances.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continued unabated for the fifth week as the death toll neared 10,000. Over 30,000 people have been injured and over 1.4 million Gazans displaced.
