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“We have to shut down their business”

Interview with Nikodem Kaddoura from the Bridges of Resistance camp in Hamburg


05/05/2026

Hi, thanks for talking to us. Could you start by introducing yourself?

Sure. My name is Nikodem Kaddoura. I’m part of the campaign Stop Nakba Now!. We’re a nationwide campaign that is confronting Germany’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza.

Today we specifically want to talk about the camp that you’re organizing in Hamburg, running up to Nakba day

Right. There is an action week from May 9 to May 16 in Hamburg. There will be a protest camp at the Moorweide throughout the week, and on the 16th, there will be a nationwide protest gathering near to the port of Hamburg.

Who’s gonna be speaking at the camp?

We’re currently still in the announcement phase on social media, but we’ve already confirmed a number of speakers. These include Yasemin Acar, Judith Scheytt, Fabian Goldmann, Fabian Lehr, Alena Jabarine, Elisa Baş, Hebh Jamal, Riad Othman and many more.

There will be many more speakers contributing to around 40 workshops and panels throughout the week. You can find the full and continuously updated program on our website.

Why a nationwide protest camp in Hamburg?

We have to look at the last two and a half years. There have been many protests and a lot of important organizing and a large solidarity movement gathered on the streets. Solidarity is important, but at the same time many of us are asking: what comes next? Solidarity isn’t the goal. It’s the first step that is necessary, but we need something after which we can hold on to, something that allows us to move from outrage to strategy.

That’s why we have to disrupt the complicity of Germany and the genocide in Gaza. It’s not enough to only address the complicity in the abstract. We want to make it visible through protests, political education and direct confrontation with all the structures that sustain the apartheid, the genocide, and all the systems in Israel.

When we look at Hamburg, we have to say that complicity isn’t only political. It isn’t just the government or Staatsräson. It is also economic and logistical. There are whole chains of complicity, and companies are profiting from the suffering of Palestinians, as well as from other people across the Global South.

In that context, the port of Hamburg is a central hub where these chains converge. In the last three years, 17,000 boxes of ammunition were shipped from Hamburg to Israel. And these are only the ones we know about. Because of the lack of transparency, this is probably only the tip of the iceberg. We don’t know about the technology and all the other military goods that were shipped to Israel.

This is a specific material complicity. Our question is not whether Germany is involved. We ask whether we are ready to confront the infrastructure through which that apartheid, settler colonialism, and genocide are maintained?

Our campaign is called Stop Nakba now. When we talk about the Nakba, we have to be clear that it’s not a closed chapter of history. The Nakba is still ongoing. It is a continuing process of displacement, ethnic cleansing and settler colonial violence against Palestinians.

What we’re witnessing today in Gaza didn’t begin two and a half years ago. It must be understood as part of a much larger history – includingf Zionist settler colonialism, forced displacement, oppression, mass killing, and now an act of genocide. This is why the Action Week is placed around the memorial day of the Nakba. We want to address the complicity to support the Palestinians.

Last year, we had the largest demonstration in Germany for Palestine ever. Six days later, the ceasefire was called, which we know wasn’t a ceasefire, but it demobilised the movement worldwide. How do you think we can win back the people who were demonstrating in September and are no longer on the streets?

I think it’s connected to the point I made earlier. We have to give hope to the people  giving logical next steps. When we’re talking about the solidarity movement that wants to free Palestine, we will not liberate Palestine within German borders. But in Germany, we have the responsibility, at least, to disrupt the systems that enable apartheid, displacement, and genocide. If we’re serious in this solidarity, then we have to weaken these structures and oppression that make this violence possible.

On the other hand, it’s very important to combine our struggles. Our protest camp is being held under the motto Bridges of Resistance. The focus should be on the connection to other struggles, including international struggles and social struggles here in Germany. These struggles are not separated. They are deeply connected. That’s why we want to gather not only a big mass but also a diversity of people from different struggles.

Are there any specific struggles you want to talk about?

If we look at the austerity and the situation of social services in Germany, we can see this very clearly. We are constantly told that because of the debt break there is no money for housing, for education, healthcare, environment or social infrastructure. At the same time, billions are being forced into militarization.

How is it possible that Rheinmetall last year made a record profit while wages are under pressure, and more and more people are living under increasingly difficult conditions? How is it possible that there’s always money for war but never for people’s needs?

We also want to address the school strike movement because young people are facing climate collapse, militarization, austerity, racism and repression. But these aren’t separate issues. They are connected through a system that prioritizes profits over life. If we are serious about building resistance, then we have to build bridges between these struggles. They are part of the same system, and they have to be fought together to achieve the goals of liberation.

One of the interesting things about the last school strike, particularly in Berlin, was the number of demonstrators wearing kuffiyahs and carrying Palestine flags. This is new in Germany. What concrete links are you able to build with the school strike movement?

We will have students at the camp to give workshops, and we will try to directly address the school strike movement. As you said, in Berlin there was massive solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Even in Hamburg, there was a big solidarity movement.

We have to connect, because I have hope in our young generation. It’s time now to change something within the system, and to change the system.

If people come to the camp, what can they expect?

We will have plenty of political education, discussions and networking. And we will talk about direct action – How can we disrupt these chains of complicity? How is it possible for us to change something within our borders?

As I said, our responsibility here in Germany is to build a movement that is strong enough to disrupt the global war machine. We need to cut off the material support that is necessary to sustain apartheid and genocide. This is how we can  create a ground for Palestinians to be able to continue their resistance against the Israeli regime and to liberate themselves We planned a whole action week to discuss these things and also to take some first practical steps.

The aim is to build a movement that can put real pressure on the structures enabling militarisation and violence, and to create conditions that support ongoing resistance.

How many people are you expecting at the camp? It’s during the week, so some people will be working.

Hopefully as many as possible, I hope that throughout the week hundreds of people will be at the camp, thousands at the protest. I hope we will be 10,000 and more. Who knows? It’s a very important campaign, and we have to gather in front of their doors. Hamburg is, as I said, a central hub for the maintenance of the Israeli structures, of their part in the genocide. So we have to go directly where it hurts them.

There’s a national demonstration being called for the day after Nakba day. Originally in Berlin, people said: we’ll do a Berlin demonstration on Nakba day, and then we’ll come to Hamburg. Now the Berlin demo is going to be at the same time as the Hamburg demo. This is a shame. What should we be telling people now?

It’s up to the people. But I can only address the last two and a half years. We’re protesting on the streets, addressing politicians, maybe in front of the Bundestag or Brandenburger Tor, but at the end, it’s only symbolic. We’re protesting and addressing politicians who will not change anything.

We have to be the change we want for our people, and we have to bring the change. We have to ask: who iscomplying with genocide? It isn’t just the politicians, it’s the companies. These are the value chains of goods being shipped to Israel. We have to address these people – and not only address them, but also confront them.

That’s why we have to go to Hamburg in front of their doors, because the biggest companies involved in this genocide are located in Hamburg. We have the German offices of Merz. We have Hapag-Lloyd. We have MSC. We have plenty of companies making billions of profits in the last two and a half years who are still doing their businesses without any disruption.

And there are also the ports from which the weapons are sent

Yes

There have been a number of camps recently –which is a welcome development – from organisations like Shut Elbit Down. Some of these camps have been shut down or attacked by the police. How likely is it that you’re going to have any problems?

Hopefully not. We have good enough lawyers who we’ve been working with for a long time. They are in solidarity with the Palestinian movement and our activism  in Hamburg. We most probably will not face any repression, because at the end, if the state will try any repression against us, we know that we will win a legal process in court.

All of these repressions are an act of weakness from the state, because they are afraid of our activism. They know that our work can hurt the government and this capitalist system.

What’s going to happen after that? You say this is not just about having a symbolic demonstration. It’s not just changing minds but also changing practice. What do you think can happen as a result of the camp?

ther countries like Greece or Italy, have a big movement of port workers who have blocked shipments. This is where we have to start – first with this week, to make the complicity visible and create awareness for this topic, then to go on and try to disrupt them.

Every single Euro they make from the suffering of the Palestinian people, has to be revenged. It can’t stay like this. We have to shut down their business, like when you talked about Shut Elbit Down. We have to shut down all the companies which are making profits from the genocide in Gaza and throughout the whole Global South.

What can people in Berlin do to support the camp and demo?

We have two pages on social media. The one is the campaign account – Stop Nakba Now. The other one is the camp account: Bridges of Resistance. Stop Nakba Now also has a website. You can stay up to date from these channels. There are pickup points in Berlin, so people who want to join this campaign can pick up material, like posters or information sheets to share throughout Berlin.

Is there any transport organized from Berlin?

We have organised two buses that will bring people from Berlin to the rally in Hamburg. You find information about times and tickets on our website. 

Is there anything we haven’t covered that you think we should talk about?This week will be expensive, and we are a grassroots movement, so we don’t have a lot of money. We have a crowdfunding campaign. We need every single euro or every single cent that people or organisations are able to donate. We listed the costs we have so that people can understand why we need the money and for what the money will be used.

A Failed Kafka Musical

Berliner Ensemble’s Kafka-inspired “Talmudic Vaudeville” fails due to German state censorship of non-Zionist Jewish identity.


04/05/2026

On paper, K. sounds just like the kind of play Berlin would need right now. The “Talmudic Vaudeville show inspired by Kafka’s The Trial,” with text and music in German, Yiddish, and Hebrew, just finished a run at Berliner Ensemble, Bertolt Brecht’s old theater in central Berlin.

I saw a performance on April 27 — the same day the anti-Zionist group Jüdische Stimme (Jewish Voice) won an injunction against Germany’s domestic secret service. The agency founded by Nazi war criminals had been referring to these Jewish leftists as “extremists.”

The irony makes it clear: there is a lot to be said about Jewish culture in Germany today.

The German bourgeoisie is made of numerous Nazi billionaires whose wealth can be traced back to the Holocaust. Today they don the mantle of philosemitism to support another genocide. They sell weapons to a colonial enclave in the Middle East, but swear their only goal is to “protect Jewish life.” If any Jews voice objection, the black-gloved fist of a German cop will keep them quiet — all in the name of “fighting antisemitism,” naturally.

Accelerated by the genocide in Gaza, Jewish identity around the world is being torn down and rebuilt. A partial Zionist consensus that existed for a generation after 1967 is melting away — traditional anti-Zionist leftist ideologies of the Jewish Left are reemerging from its ashes. Surely Kafka, the great assimilated Jewish-German artist of the 20th century, could offer some material to think about such screaming contradictions.

Kafka’s relationship to Judaism and Zionism was ambivalent. “What do I have in common with Jews?” he wondered. “I hardly have anything in common with myself.” Yet he was fascinated by the competing Jewish revivals going on around him, studying Hebrew and attending Yiddish theater in Prague.

A modern staging of Kafka could try to reflect how today’s ideological tensions echo those of the author. But no. Despite a stunning performance by Kathrin Wehlisch as Joseph K., this is a standard version of The Trial, more than 100 years after the story’s publication. In vain one waits to see some nod to the world we live in. How about a right-wing German judge condemning a Jewish immigrant for antisemitism? Kafkaesque!

To create an air of originality, the standard play is interrupted by Yiddish pop songs of a century ago — beautiful but random. On top of this, the audience reads a short story and diary entries from Kafka as he lay dying in a sanatorium. There are Klezmer melodies and poems by Heinrich Heine. Kafka’s short story “The Penal Colony” is read in full, so that K. is executed twice for no apparent reason.

There are brief moments of creativity, such as when K.’s advocate thunders in Hebrew from inside a Hekhal:  “Thou shall have no other advocates before me!” But these are few and far between. Coming in at over three hours, it’s an exhausting mishmash with nothing to say about anything. 

An artist like Daniel Kahn might have done something profound with a Yiddish-language Kafka musical — but Kahn is too radical to get a big stage in Germany today. K. is Jewish culture as the German bourgeoisie wants it: dead, meaningless cosplay. German philosemitism is superficial: Any engagement with Jews (or those who present themselves as Jews to German audiences) is strictly subordinate to the country’s imperialist interests. 

The German establishment regularly cancels Jewish artists — not just radical leftists, but even famous artists like Nan Goldin or even comedians like Nathan Fielder. Only the German bourgeoisie really knows what antisemitism is, after all. So this innocuous Kafka production is the only thing that gets past the censorship.

Photo Gallery – Revolutionary 1 May Demonstration: Berlin 2026

Kreuzberg and Neukölln. 1 May 2026


02/05/2026

All photos: Cherry Adam

“I want to show my university that there are huge differences between activism in Spain and Germany”

Social work student seeks German Palestine activist interviews for her thesis


Dima is seated with arms resting on a table. She is looking right at the camera but her face is tilted slightly to the left. Her mouth curves into a slight smile. She wears a kuffiyeh around her neck.

Hi, there. Could you start by introducing yourself?

My name is Dima. I’m Palestinian. My parents are from Palestine. I was born and raised in Germany, but I consider myself Palestinian.

I’m a student in my last year. I’m studying social work at a Spanish university in Almeria. Currently I’m doing an internship working with unaccompanied minors who are refugees, and who came to Germany either by themselves or with a parent. At the same time I’m writing my dissertation.

And as part of this dissertation you are doing a survey?

Yes. It’s a research project, basically. The topic is the experiences of pro Palestinian activists in Germany with a special focus on violence and discrimination.

Are you trying to address all pro Palestinian activists, or just a particular sort?

I’m interested in talking to anybody who is active around Palestine. You don’t have to go to
demonstrations all the time, or consider yourself an activist. Some people are engaged and active, but they don’t consider themselves activists, and that’s completely fine.

I don’t care how old you are or what back story you have. All genders, all ethnicities are welcome. The important thing is that you’re open to talk to me. It’s obviously only in the way that you want to. I’m not looking for a specific profile. It just has to be activists in Berlin.

I’m interested in talking to anybody who is active around Palestine. You don’t have to go to
demonstrations all the time, or consider yourself an activist. Some people are engaged and active, but they don’t consider themselves activists, and that’s completely fine.

What are you interested in hearing about in particular, or won’t you know until you hear it?

I want to hear about experiences that either you had by yourself or you have observed in terms of discrimination and violence. So if you can tell me about something that happened to you that was discriminatory or difficult to handle, or that had an impact on you.

It can be police violence. It can be just violence on the street, family topics, or professional consequences of participating in something. That happens a lot as well. I’m looking to find out how that impacts people, because there is a huge difference in activism in different countries. And Berlin is very different from the rest of Germany.

I’m studying in Spain, and I lived in Spain for the past three and a half years. Activism is handled very differently there. Because it will be published in Spain, I want to show my university that there are huge differences between activism in Germany and Spain, using examples from people who have lived it.

Why are you specifically interested in Berlin? You could have done this about Spain or about Bayern. What’s so interesting about Berlin?

I didn’t know that Berlin was interesting in that sense until I moved here a couple of months ago. I wasn’t here before, but I saw it in the news a lot. Friends that I know here told me that the violence and polarization in Germany is brutal. Even if you’re a Leftist, it doesn’t guarantee that you are pro Palestinian, and that’s worrying for me.

Berlin is also such a concentration point for activism and political standing that I think it’s a really good place to analyse the dynamics and find out what the reality is for Palestinian activists living here.

What have you experienced about the differences between the Palestine movement in Germany and in Spain?

It’s so different. The first protest that I went to here was in March, about three weeks into me being in Germany, and the vibe was completely different. There were a lot more police. People were, like, really engaged with everything.

In Spain, often the protests are kind of cute and wholesome and really beautiful to see. I’m not saying the protests here aren’t beautiful, because it is beautiful to see a lot of people united and fighting for the same cause. But in Spain, you don’t have to be worried about anything. You don’t have to be worried about being discriminated against because you’re wearing a Palestine scarf or for expressing your political views. In that sense, the police are really, really chill.

If you have a leftist political opinion in Spain, then you’re pro Palestinian in Spain. I hung out with a lot of leftist people, and no one would ever consider defending Israel’s right to exist or the genocide. No one ever denied the definition of what’s happening in Gaza, which is a genocide.

Is there a difference between the Spanish and the German governments?

The Spanish government is pretty great in that sense. Well, Pedro Sánchez is. I’m not a huge fan of him, because I think there’s a lot of things that he’s not doing right, but regarding Palestine he’s doing the right thing. He condemns Israel’s actions. He condemns the genocide. He supported the flotilla. It’s really great. Such things as antisemitism accusations would just not happen.

And then there’s the German government. You’re not allowed to wear a Palestine jumper in parliament. I think that says it all.

Do you think that Sanchez means it, or is he responding to public opinion?

Great question. I think he wants to be popular as well. Obviously, he needs it. He would lose the vote very quickly if
he wasn’t responding to public opinion. I don’t think it’s great, but we’re in desperate times. If his actions are these, but his opinion is a different one, I think I have to just try to ignore that.

Tell us about your survey. You’ve only just started. How’s it going so far?

It’s going okay. My deadline is in five and a half weeks. I work well under pressure, so I hope the pressure will kick in soon. It’s difficult to get people to do an interview with me, because people are busy. Activists are busy. I know political work takes a lot of energy and courage and time. So sometimes people just can’t make the time, which I understand.

But sometimes I think people also don’t trust—not me, maybe, but my work, and maybe how safe they are. Maybe they think I expect too much, but I just want to have a normal conversation and then try to bring that into my work.

Obviously, everybody’s anonymous. You won’t be in danger.

To meet your other deadlines, the interviews should really be finished by around 10 May. How many interviews do you intend to do in that time?

My dream would be to have between 8 and 10 interviews. We’ve just done my third interview. I’ve got another one later on. Eight would be really good, because without that the research wouldn’t have that much credibility or weight.

I know it’s just a dissertation, but personally, it means so much to me. The more I can cause an impact, the happier I will be.

If someone wants help, how much of their time are you going to take?

All three interviews I’ve done so far were pretty exactly one hour and 20 minutes. We can make it quicker. We can make it longer. But between an hour and an hour and a half is normal.

But if someone only has half an hour, you can fit them in as well?

Yeah, of course. I can ask the important questions, but it’s always difficult to talk about Palestine within only half an hour.

Are there any findings you have made already, or have you done too few interviews to tell?

I can’t say exactly, and they were all three very different interviews, which I really like. But in terms of safety as an activist, people said similar things, also in terms of the perception of Palestinian activism in Berlin. The situation is difficult and it needs a lot of work and engagement.

Is there any specific sort of person who you haven’t interviewed yet that you really want to hear from?

I haven’t interviewed any Palestinian people yet, which would be really cool. But, I’m genuinely open to anything. I can do interviews in Spanish, English, and German. Arabic would be a challenge, but I can try with the help of friends or family. I’m open to anybody who’s interested.

What do you want to do with what you learn? Do you see further ways of using this knowledge to be able to help the movement?

I think with this dissertation, I wanted to show my university in Spain what the reality is there and here. It’s also an important piece of work for myself, because I want to know how to have a positive impact on the movement and find ways to make the movement grow.

One topic is the emotional work that you connect with Palestine activism. I want to see how people deal with those challenges and emotions, because I’m a social worker, so it would be cool to offer psychological and social health to people that suffer from oppression.

I want to help the movement. I’m also trying to find ways of bringing myself into activism in Berlin

What’s the next step for you personally? Are you going to stay in Berlin? Are you going to move back to Spain?

I’m staying in Berlin. Four months in Berlin is not enough. I want to stay in Germany. I was born and raised here, and I haven’t lived here in almost seven years. So I want to be back here.

I want to become a social worker. My internship is working with migrants and teenagers. I’d like to stay in that area.

Do you see a specific link between your social work and your Palestine activism? Or are they two separate things?

I can’t separate that very well. Social work means defending human rights and acting against repression, and my area will be antiracist practice. So it’s very combined.

As a social worker I have to work with the system, but at the same time I have to somehow trick the system to help people out.

You’ve only been here for a couple of months. Have you already got involved in the Palestine movement in Berlin?

I went to a plenum of the Gaza Committee on Monday, and I’m planning on going to a few more. I want to bring myself in there. I go to demonstrations whenever I can. I go to a lot of fundraisers and donate. I talk a lot about my type of activism as well, just spreading the word.

I know you’ve got to go in a minute to your next interview. So just quickly, if people are interested in talking to you, how can they contact you?

They can e-mail me at dj873@inlumine.ual.es.

Just say: “Hi, I’m interested. Can you tell me more?” If you’re unsure, I’m happy to respond to questions. I’d love to hear from people who are interested and want to help me make this project.

People have until 10 May, so rather sooner than later. And maybe you can write us something about the results when you’re finished?

I’d really love that. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Victory for Jewish Voice – and a heavy blow to the German Staatsräson!

A Berlin court overturns the “extremist” designation of Jewish Voice


01/05/2026

As criticism of Israel continues to be criminalized, Jewish anti-Zionists are increasingly coming into the crosshairs of the intelligence services and political actors.

A heavy blow to Germany’s Staatsräson: On Monday, the Berlin Administrative Court ruled against the Federal Republic of Germany and in favor of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (JS). The domestic intelligence agency must remove its designation of the Jewish association as a “proven extremist endeavor”—the highest level of surveillance—from its 2024 report. There, JS had been listed in the sections on “left-wing extremism,” “foreign-related extremism,” and in a footnote on “extremist pro-Palestinian groups”—marking the first time since the secret service’s founding in 1950 that a Jewish group was included in its spy report. JS has now successfully challenged this in court.

The anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist positions of Jewish Voice did not justify its listing, the judges argued. The court found no call for violence, nor any endorsement of violence as a political means, in JS’s statements or its statutes—a requirement for listing an organization as a “proven extremist endeavor.” Much of the proceedings revolved around the question of where Jewish Voice stands on the so-called “right to exist” of Israel. For an anti-Zionist group, its position on this “right” is not difficult to guess. And, neither in international law nor in national legislation, is such a “right to exist” codified. It quite simply does not exist—which is why, one might argue, right-wing Staatsräson hardliners have to drift into the metaphysical and treat it as if it were divine: praising the invisible and persecuting its rejection as blasphemous heresy. Anyone who publicly “denies the right of the State of Israel to exist” is to be made criminally liable in the future, according to a draft law by the CDU-led Hessian state government—which would amount to punishing the denial of the existence of unicorns with up to five years in prison. A turn to mysticism and superstition shapes Germany’s march toward authoritarianism.

The initial inclusion of Jewish Voice in the domestic intelligence report triggered fierce criticism of the state and strong solidarity with JS from within the Palestine solidarity movement. In contrast to Germany’s treatment of Staatsräson-aligned Jewish organizations, this attack carries a distinctly sinister undertone. The Central Council of Jews in Germany represents around 89,000 members across 105 organized communities, which tend to be more conservative and pro-Israel in orientation—amounting to just over 40 percent of all Jews living in Germany. It receives 22 million euros annually from the state, constituting the dominant share of its budget. By contrast, an association of progressive, often secular Jews advocating for a just peace and opposing the crimes of the Israeli state is targeted by Germany’s domestic intelligence service: the Federal Republic, as the state continuation of the Third Reich, is once again dividing Jews into good and bad.

The court’s decision on Monday is “a scandal,” fumed Israel’s right-wing ambassador in Berlin, Ron Prosor, on X. “Does the perpetrator first have to quote ‘Mein Kampf’ before people are willing to clearly call out antisemitism?” Prosor asked, with breathtaking crudity toward the Jewish group, many of whose members’ relatives were persecuted, gassed, and tortured by Hitler’s henchmen. In a direct attack on the separation of powers, the right-wing Prosor assails the court’s decision and could thereby arguably run counter to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which in Art. 41 explicitly states that diplomats “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of [the receiving] State”—but international law, as we know, hardly counts for the right-wing “value partners” within the Israeli government.

The significance of Monday’s proceedings for a potential ban of Jewish Voice was also discussed repeatedly during the hearings. Surveillance and data collection by the domestic intelligence agency would form the basis for such a ban procedure, the lawyer for the respondent explained. Bans have already targeted groups within the Palestine solidarity movement, such as the prisoner support network Samidoun, which is close to the Palestinian PFLP. Give it a few more years of rightward discursive shift and steroid-fueled pro-Israel self-radicalization in politics and media, and the German state will surely feel empowered to ban Jewish organizations again as well—all in the name of anti-antisemitism, of course.

Beyond the attacks by the domestic intelligence agency, Jewish Voice is also facing pressure from other actors. The group has been repeatedly debanked: in 2024, Berliner Sparkasse froze its account, and earlier the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft had already done so. Hesse’s “antisemitism commissioner,” Uwe Becker, called in January for JS to be banned entirely, claiming it acts “very clearly against the spirit of understanding between peoples.” In September 2024, the right-wing CDU politician honored soldiers of the Israeli army in a café in Frankfurt am Main; he said he had thanked “the soldiers for their service in defending Israel,” referring to a military that at that point had already been committing genocide for eleven months and was boasting of grave war crimes via livestreams on TikTok and Instagram. Last September, he also called for a ban on the Palestinian keffiyeh in German streets, arguing that it “glorifies terror.” Does Becker consider such openly racist attacks to be in line with “the spirit of understanding between peoples”?

While JS succeeded on Monday in having its designation removed from the 2024 domestic intelligence report, the chamber rejected its second request—to also prohibit the German government, on a preventive basis, from mentioning JS in its future spy reports and in other statements by the Interior Ministry. It therefore remains to be seen whether the domestic intelligence agency will include JS in its 2025 report. Its publication is expected in the coming months. Politically, that is certainly desired, but JS would also challenge such a designation in court. And it remains questionable whether the German state will prefer to spare itself another humiliation like the one on Monday.

For the intelligence agency’s lawyer, Wolfgang Roth of the law firm Redeker Sellner Dahs—which has repeatedly represented the German state in cases involving complicity in Israeli crimes, including over German arms deliveries to the Israeli regime for the genocide in Gaza and in the BT3P lawsuit against the 2019 anti-BDS resolution—delivered a truly poor performance. His argument, repeated several times, was that while JS had never actually uttered the words they would like to put in their mouths, it nonetheless did so—wily, as it were—“implicitly”; that “between the lines, everything is clear,” and that this is precisely the space where violence is “promoted.” All of this strongly recalls former Berlin State Minister for Culture Joe Chialo, who accused the left-wing migrant cultural center Oyoun in Berlin-Neukölln of harboring “hidden antisemitism.” Once again: the state, as it moves toward authoritarianism, must rely on elves and goblins to justify its repression—we may not be able to see them, but they are really there, scout’s honor, pinky swear!

Even if Monday’s ruling is to be welcomed, no one should be under any illusions. Isolated indications that the judiciary is (still) not fully politicized along Staatsräson lines, and that the separation of powers can still function, do not obscure the broader trend we are witnessing in this sick country. Germany is marching toward authoritarianism, and the broad-based attack on Palestine solidarity serves as the testing ground: brown, foreign, left-wing, majority-minoritized—the perfect object (because it lacks a lobby) for establishing the baton as the new normal in this country.

Yet, according to several polls, the population largely holds critical views of the Israeli government and its support by Germany—Staatsräson is a reactionary instrument of power wielded by political and media elites, forced through against the population and necessarily tied to a perversion of the concept of antisemitism. And increasingly, Jewish individuals are becoming targets of these attacks. The German state is, of all things, fighting Jews in the name of combating antisemitism.