The repression of the struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people is nothing new in Germany. For decades, this country has been, among many other things, outlawing Palestinian associations, banning demonstrations and dismissing anti-Zionist journalists from its public media. Parliament passed the 2019 non-binding resolution against the BDS movement after accusing BDS of using Nazi slogans. There has been a surge in the cancellation of events involving individuals and associations that support this peaceful movement, all under the umbrella of the fight against antisemitism.
Since October 2023, the German state has intensified its efforts on all fronts to promote a single narrative that portrays Israel as the eternal victim, denying the occupation and apartheid in Palestine and describing the genocide in Gaza exclusively as Israel’s ‘self-defence’.
At the same time, the state and all kinds of private and public institutions repeat, that Germany denazified itself, and purged its institutions of the worst antisemitic criminals. They claim they had re-educated a population that was a victim of Nazism rather than collaborators. Finally they claim they are now being invaded by irrational antisemitic barbarians importing antisemitism.
To justify all of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, the German state and its servile public media and most private media have not only repeated and amplified word for word each and every one of the lies of the genocidal state.
Journalists and German journalists’ associations have spent two years accusing without evidence their Palestinian colleagues of being Hamas, and therefore legitimate targets. This past October, the German public broadcaster ZDF – and most of the German media – betrayed its own journalist collaborator in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Mutair, who was killed along with an 8-year-old boy, Bashar al-Zaanen, the son of his colleague Mohammed al-Zaanen, who was also injured. They accused these journalists – whose names they did not even mention when reporting the deadly attack – of being terrorists, thus justifying their murder.
he German press giant Springer Press, has a right-wing editorial line that is clearly anti-immigration, anti-Islamist, Zionist and in favour of rearming Germany.It is coordinating with Israel to publish fake news that derailed the negotiations for a ceasefire in September 2024. Springer Press also accuses Palestinian journalists of staging photos to spread what they classify as fake news, i.e. the well-documented famine in Gaza. For example they claim the work of Palestinian photojournalist Anas Zayed Fteiha as fraudulent. Seeking truth and justice Anas initiated legal proceedings in Germany against Springer for defamation. Conveniently this was promptly dismissed on absurdly formal grounds, as he could not present an original document or one with electronic certification bearing the signature of the journalist in Gaza.
The press has also defended and justified the actions of the German state, both internally and externally. Germany has fervently supported the genocide, sending weapons, voting against or abstaining from UN resolutions for a ceasefire, repeating and amplifying all of Israel’s lies.Germany was the only country to join Israel in its defence in the genocide trial it faces at the International Court of Justice.
Internally, the German state and its lackey press have demonised the entire solidarity movement with Palestine. The press has published hundreds of articles justifying state repression and violence against pro-Palestinian activists. The latter are branded as “internal terrorists”, making them legitimate targets to be taken down and punished. Several legal attempts in Germany against the media’s smear campaign against the Palestine solidarity movement were systematically dismissed by the country’s courts.
From the river to the sea, the state’s trump card
One weapon of the state, especially in Berlin, to violently attack demonstrations, carry out mass arrests and bring hundreds of activists to trial is the phrase ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. Numerous first-instance trials that have determined that this slogan, used for decades around the world, is not exclusive to Hamas. Yet the police arrest those who say it with increasing violence. The state’s legal team under orders cannot admit defeat.
This slogan is now on trial in the second instance in the Berlin criminal court. The trial, which will last ten sessions, reeks of irregularities. It includes judges who have previously ruled that they consider this slogan a terrorist symbol. The trial, which is being held in high-security courtrooms, involves sharing photos on Instagram of Hamas soldiers using phrases that make the German state uncomfortable, perfectly portrays the establishment of this country.
An establishment that fiercely defends the psychopathic Zionist soldiers of the IDF. This establishment not only refused to prosecute IDF soldiers as other countries do, but also invites them to speak publicly in this city. For example the guard of the torture prison in Sde Teiman Elkana Federman, was invited to speak at the Nova exhibition on 28 October 2025 and presented as a hero. This exhibition cost Berlin’s coffers €1.4 million at a time of ostentatious austerity and cuts.
This same city persecutes, arrests and prosecutes any show of sympathy or admiration for individuals and groups fighting against the terrorist state of Israel. The right to self-defence of occupied peoples is ratified by international law. Yet Germany, as all colonising powers have done against indigenous populations, has declared Hamas (and several armed groups) a terrorist group and banned all its activities in the country. This effectively denies the right to self-government and self-defence of the population of Gaza.Germany demands Gazans ‘simply’ accept its fate, lay down its arms and abandon the coveted strip.
We witness an elaborate spectacle in the 10-session trial – over a few photos and a slogan. The allied press has already practically declared the accused guilty. It is nothing more than a pathetic and costly attempt to justify the increasingly authoritarian actions of the German state. A state in financial and moral decline, which is testing the limits of its institutions and testing its population with propaganda. That state once again divides its citizens into ‘them or us’, with increasingly openly Nazi rhetoric and word choice. It is attempting to emerge from its crisis through rearmament and continued war.
For now, the line of containment has been the courts. Despite textbook lawfare against pro-Palestinian activism, the activists have remained steadfast, most fighting their cases to the end. They have mostly so far, won with verdicts in their favour, or with relatively favourable deals. But this may worsen if this case sets a precedent.
This latest trial for ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is important. But it is just one of thousands and thousands of trials that the movement faces with dignity and usingfacts and truths. These the German state lacks, whose ‘Staatsräson’ has portrayed it as what it is: a racist, fascist state rotten with love for genocide.
