After the so-called Berlin “Palestine Congress” was canceled by the police on Friday, the organizers made serious allegations against the federal government and the security forces. Wieland Hoban, chairman of the pro-Palestinian “Jewish Voice” and one of the organizers of the congress, sees the police’s ban on continuing the three-day event as “police arbitrariness” and “mafia methods.”
At a press conference on Saturday, Hoban assumed that the federal government had intervened: “The repression shows that the German state does not want us to accuse us of complicity in the genocide.” In the martial language used by the congress organizers, “genocide” refers to the actions of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip in response to the terrorist act by Hamas on October 7th. Before the start of the congress, they refused to answer the question in an initial press conference as to whether they distanced themselves from Hamas’ terrorist acts.
The police broke up the event after two hours
Police broke up the event on Friday about two hours after it began. The up to 250 congress participants were asked to leave the hall early in the evening. The police intervened with several officers, cut the transmission and temporarily switched off the power.
The spokeswoman for the ten-person legal team of the congress organizers, Nadija Samour, emphasized that they had cooperated willingly and extensively with the security organs at all times up to the cancellation, and that the usual agreements in advance were constructive and professional. In their opinion, the police reacted “completely disproportionately” when they banned the event from continuing. The lawyer assumes that the police acted “knowingly unlawfully” due to political pressure and speculates that “perhaps” the federal level, i.e. the Interior Ministry, also became active.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser praised the police’s use of the platform X, formerly Twitter. “It is right and necessary for the Berlin police to crack down on the so-called Palestine Congress. We do not tolerate Islamist propaganda or hatred against Jews,” she wrote. The police union also called the officers’ crackdown a “strong signal towards those who exploit our democracy or who doubt the assertiveness of the capital’s police.”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/.”Those who want to use our democratic opportunities “, he also has to adhere to requirements and laws,” said state boss Stephan Weh, according to the announcement.
A video is the trigger for the cancellation
The security forces’ intervention was triggered by a video played and streamed at the congress by the Palestinian activist and geographer Salma Abu Sitta. He had been banned from entering and engaging in political activity in the Federal Republic, among other things because he had publicly celebrated the terrorist attack on October 7th and the “determination and courage” of the Hamas murderers.
In Samour’s opinion, playing his video does not violate the activity ban because he was not physically present. According to Samour, the police knew the list of speakers and could have banned the video contribution in advance when making arrangements with the organizers. Samour further argues that the video contains “no criminal statements.” However, Salma Abu Sitta claims that what is happening in the Gaza Strip is “unique in world history.” He also refers to the Holocaust, which can at least be understood as a relativization of the Holocaust.
Congress participants say they are being prevented from entering the country
Another congress participant, the surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, said he was prevented from entering the country at Berlin airport. The British-Palestinian doctor had worked in a hospital in the Gaza Strip for 43 days after the Israeli army’s intervention and wanted to report on the conditions there in Berlin. According to lawyer Samour, the doctor had not received a written justification for the entry ban until Saturday. According to her, the lawyer had not received any written justification from the public prosecutor’s office until Saturday for the cancellation and ban on the continuation of the congress.
Samour does not consider the operational manager’s oral justification that the police wanted to rule out potentially criminal statements to be valid: there were no criminal statements made at the event, nor did he pose an immediate danger to life and limb or public order.