It is a slap in the face for Jews living in Germany: for the first time, a court has allowed anti-Semites to deny the state of Israel’s right to exist at demonstrations. The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, has overturned a ban imposed by the Administrative Court in Düsseldorf in an urgent ruling. The case concerned a pro-Palestinian demonstration planned for Saturday in Düsseldorf and the restrictions imposed on participants. More than 5,000 people had registered to attend.
The police had forbidden the organiser from denying the right of the State of Israel to exist during the rally. In addition, the slogans mentioned in the rally’s motto, ‘From the river to the sea’, ‘There is only one state – Palestine 48’ and ‘Yalla, yalla, Intifada’, were only allowed to be read out once at the beginning of the event and could not be used again afterwards.
The Higher Administrative Court justified its decision by stating: ‘Denying the right of the State of Israel to exist does not in itself constitute a criminal offence.’
However, ‘critical examination of the founding of the State of Israel and the demand for peaceful change to existing conditions’ are protected by the right to freedom of expression.
The situation is different, however, with regard to the other slogans. ‘Yalla, yalla, Intifada’ remains banned at the demonstration in Düsseldorf, as it could be understood ‘as an expression of sympathy for the acts of violence committed by radical Palestinians’.
‘From the river to the sea’ also remains banned because it is a slogan of the terrorist Palestinian organisation Hamas.
The ban on ‘There is only one state – Palestine 48’, on the other hand, has been lifted. Although the slogan calls for the annihilation of Israel, which was founded in 1948 from the ruins of the Holocaust.
The decision of the Higher Administrative Court is not subject to appeal.
Gericht in Münster erlaubt Antisemiten-Slogan bei Demo | Regional | BILD.de