A court in Berlin fined German-Iranian activist Ava Moayeri €600 after she chanted the slogan “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free” during a pro-Palestinian protest in the capital.
The slogans were chanted four days after Hamas launched its attacks on Israel and the Israeli army responded by bombing a large number of Palestinian targets in Gaza.
Moayeri’s lawyers consider the verdict a defeat for freedom of expression, and the judge justified his decision by saying that the chant clearly “denies the right of the State of Israel to exist” – which is a criminal offense in Germany.
The judge, Birgit Balzer, further argued that the phrase may indeed fall under Germany’s highly restricted freedom of expression in some cases – but that this cannot apply in this case as the chant was sung shortly after “the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust“.
According to the judge, and the German authorities, support for Israel is at the heart of Germany’s national identity – because of the historical responsibility it still feels for crimes committed against Jews during the World War II and because it is particularly important that Jews feel “safe and comfortable” in the country.
“Victory for state oppression”
Not everyone was impressed with the reasoning, however, and hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court chanting “Free Palestine” – only about 20 were allowed to attend the hearing itself.
Ms. Moayeri, who has no criminal record and is normally involved in various left-wing activist projects related to migrants and feminism, announced that her lawyers intend to appeal the verdict to a higher court.
Her team called the outcome a “victory for the state’s repression” of the protesters, arguing that the slogan is not hateful but should be seen as a “central expression of the global solidarity movement” used long before the Hamas attacks.
“Anti-Semitic incitement”
Although the slogan has been used by nationalists since the 1960s, as well as by left-wing activists and liberal groups, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in February that it could constitute “anti-Semitic incitement” and be interpreted as “condoning the murders committed in Israel“.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has also claimed that “from the river to the sea” is a Hamas slogan, and therefore banned from public use. German police have repeatedly broken up protests or revoked permits for using the phrase.
Israel’s ruling Likud party has also used similar slogans on several occasions, declaring that “between the sea and the Jordan River there will be only Israeli sovereignty” – but in these cases accusations of incitement and condemnations by German ministers have failed to materialize.
