Demonstrators also showed solidarity with Palestinians and especially the residents of the Gaza Strip on the one hand, and solidarity with Israel and the victims of the Hamas terrorist attack on the other this weekend in Munich. On Saturday, according to police, around 500 people gathered at Königsplatz to protest against Israel’s attacks and to advocate for the freedom of the Palestinian territories. The following day, a broad alliance of parties and organizations invited people to publicly stand on Israel’s side. According to the police, around 400 demonstrators followed the call.
According to the police, around 400 demonstrators on Odeonsplatz followed the call of a broad alliance to publicly side with Israel.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
At the beginning of Saturday at Königsplatz, the organizers rolled out a document many meters long with name after name written on it. Speaker Rihm Hamdan from the “Palestine Speaks” association explained that all of these people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel responded with attacks to the attack by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023. “This is just some of the murdered,” she shouted into the microphone. After a minute’s silence, like other speakers, she called for an immediate end to Israeli military actions. “Stop the genocide” was written on posters.
An incident at the Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium in Neuperlach also became the topic of the demonstration. There, unknown people had left “racist graffiti” on the facade, including “Kill all Palestinians.” This is what it says in an official statement from the school. When the writing was discovered last Monday, the school management filed a criminal complaint and had the graffiti removed. Parents, teachers and students were informed and the incident was also dealt with educationally. “We condemn this racist call for violence in the strongest possible terms,” the statement said.
Rihm Hamdan made serious accusations in her speech. The incident should have been “swept under the rug,” she said. Citing the school’s criminal complaint, the police refused to file another one from the Palestinian side. The school only filed the complaint for damage to property. A police spokeswoman confirmed the reason for the complaint. However, the suspicion was expanded to include the offense of incitement to hatred. There was no news on Sunday that a criminal complaint had been refused.
It was also about agitation and death on Odeonsplatz on Sunday, but in the opposite context. On the stage of the demonstration “Solidarity with Israel – against terror, hatred and anti-Semitism” several speakers called for unconditional support for Israel and also to protect Jewish life in Germany from any attack. What happened on October 7th should not be suppressed or forgotten, said the deputy CSU parliamentary group leader in the city council, Hans Theiss, representing the city.
In order to demonstrate Munich’s solidarity with Israel and its Jewish fellow citizens, Ruvik Danilovich, the mayor of the twin city Be’er Sheva, will be digitally connected to the general meeting of the Munich City Council on Wednesday. It is important to show the flag for Israel “even louder, even more vehemently.” The Green party leader Katharina Schulze, Bavaria’s FDP leader Martin Hagen and the state government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Ludwig Spaenle, joined this demand as representatives of state politics. They urgently pointed out the fate of the bereaved, the hostages and their relatives. Anyone who now calls for “mindless freedom for Palestine” is “making themselves the henchmen of the murderers,” said Spaenle.