Planned Palestinian demonstrations have been banned in several German cities due to security concerns, possible anti-Semitic statements or glorification of violence. The police also had to intervene in several cities because Israeli flags were stolen and set on fire.
In Berlin, the police banned a demonstration planned for Friday afternoon at the Brandenburg Gate. Since the terrorist attack by the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas on Israel on October 7th, the police have banned several demonstrations because of the expectation of anti-Semitic statements and approval of the Hamas bloodbath. Despite the bans, officials in the capital repeatedly had to crack down on gatherings of people in connection with the Middle East conflict. There were three arrests at a gathering of up to 150 people in the Neukölln district.
In Frankfurt, the organizer of an anti-Israel rally planned for Saturday and banned by the city was temporarily arrested. A police spokesman said she denied and trivialized the Hamas massacres last weekend in a live-streamed press statement. It is being investigated whether this is a case of sedition. However, in the evening it was decided that the rally could take place. The Frankfurt Administrative Court said the ban was unlawful.
The Bavarian capital Munich banned a pro-Palestinian gathering planned for Friday evening. A spokeswoman for the district administration department said a ban was also being prepared for a pro-Palestinian rally on Marienplatz on Saturday. The city of Freiburg also banned an unannounced gathering on Friday under the motto “Palestine solidarity is not a crime.” Pro-Palestinian events were also banned on Saturday in Cologne and Mannheim.
Israeli flags stolen or set on fire
Meanwhile, there were operations related to Israel flags in several cities. In Berlin, an Israel flag attached to the town hall in the Reinickendorf district was set on fire on Friday. On Thursday, an Israeli flag was torn from a flagpole and set on fire in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital of Mainz.
According to police, an Israeli flag was also stolen on Thursday in Recklinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The police in Stuttgart reported a burn hole in an Israeli flag attached to a cultural institution on Friday night. In Stade, Lower Saxony, a group of young men broke into the town hall on Thursday to tear down an Israel flag, the police reported.
After the terror against Israel and the subsequent air strikes by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist Hamas has called on “Arab and Muslim nations and the free people of the world” to mass protests. It’s about support “in view of the open war of the (Israeli) occupation.”
