Thousands of people gathered in Berlin at midday for the start of the pro-Palestinian demonstration. The area around the Neptune Fountain on Alexanderplatz in the Mitte district became increasingly filled with people from 2 p.m.
They carried Palestine flags and posters with slogans such as “Stop the genocide in Gaza” or “From the river to the sea – we demand equality” – translated: From the river to the sea, we demand equality for all. This refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. A speaker called for an end to the “apartheid culture” and a halt to the bombings in Gaza.
At around 3 p.m. the police counted around 6,000 people. However, a “further influx is to be expected,” said a spokeswoman on site. Accordingly, the police checked the personal details of individual participants. Some posters that violated the requirements were painted over or taken down.
According to a spokeswoman, the police in Berlin found posters with criminal content during the demonstration. She initially did not provide any information about the exact content. The police recorded the personal details of participants in several dozen cases. There were 64 so-called use cases, including administrative offenses, said a spokeswoman in the evening. Accordingly, 30 investigations were initiated, 16 on suspicion of sedition. The police initially did not provide any details about the individual crimes.
Demonstrations also in North Rhine-Westphalia
According to police reports, almost 17,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Düsseldorf. Originally only 1,000 participants were registered by a private individual. According to their own statements, the police had to intervene in isolated cases. A police spokesman spoke late in the afternoon of an overall peaceful event. Several posters were seized that put the Holocaust into perspective. There will be criminal proceedings against this.
The Düsseldorf police had announced to the participants that they would take low-threshold and consistent action in the event of crimes. Because of the unexpectedly high number of participants, the demonstration route through the city center was shortened. The participants met near the banks of the Rhine for a final rally.
In Münster, up to 400 people took to the streets for the rights of the Palestinians. The police spoke of the incident being largely peaceful. The move led from the main train station to the city center. Two participants who shouted anti-Israel slogans with criminal implications during the final rally, as well as two other people, were taken into custody. The police also issued ten expulsions because demo participants held anti-Israel posters or distributed leaflets whose content was suspected of incitement to hatred.
In Duisburg, fewer than a hundred people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally in front of the main train station. The police filed three criminal charges against participants for incitement to hatred and condoning crimes. Several pro-Palestinian groups nationwide have called for the protest march. “Many from the left-wing political spectrum who have already called for the “revolutionary May 1st demonstration” this year also mobilized,” the police said.
Terrorists from Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, carried out massacres of civilians in Israel on October 7th. Since then, Israel’s army has been using air strikes and ground troops against targets in the sealed-off coastal area.
