A Berlin court has convicted a pro-Palestinian activist of condoning a crime for leading a chant of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally in the German capital four days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, in what her defence team called a defeat for free speech.
As reported by the Guardian, the presiding judge, Birgit Balzer, ordered 22-year-old German-Iranian national Ava Moayeri to pay a €600 (£515) fine on Tuesday, rejecting her argument that she meant only to express support for “peace and justice” in the Middle East by calling out the phrase on a busy street. The report continues:
Balzer said she “could not comprehend” the logic of previous German court rulings that determined the saying was “ambiguous”, saying to her it was clear it “denied the right of the state of Israel to exist”.
She said this opinion could be covered by the freedom of expression in Germany but that the slogan’s use had to be evaluated in the context of “the biggest massacre of Jews since the Shoah – that is the elephant in the room”.
The case, heard under tight security, was one of several since the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel and the subsequent destruction of Gaza that have examined Germany’s strict limits on pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Moayeri’s lawyers called it the first trial in Berlin that centred on the use of the politically charged phrase.
Balzer said the slogan was particularly controversial in Germany, which considers support for Israel to be a matter of Staatsräson, or reason of state, at the core of its national identity due to its responsibility for the Holocaust.
She added that Germans had an obligation to make Jews in the country feel “safe and comfortable”, particularly in the face of a rise in antisemitic crimes since 7 October.
The sentence for Moayeri, who had no previous criminal record and described herself as an activist for feminist and refugee causes, came in below the €900 fine demanded by state prosecutors, who later said they would consider an appeal.
Condoning a crime can result in a prison sentence of up to three years.
Moayeri’s lawyer, Alexander Gorski, condemned what he called a win for “state oppression” of protesters and said he would challenge the verdict before a higher court.
Her legal team also said the slogan must be seen as a “central expression of the global Palestine solidarity movement” with a historical origin predating Hamas. They said Moayeri should be taken at her word that she rejected “any form of antisemitism”.
Last November, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, banned Hamas activities in Germany as well as “from the river to the sea”, which she declared to be a Hamas slogan.
In February, the justice minister, Marco Buschmann, said the phrase could constitute “antisemitic incitement” and be understood as “condoning the killings committed in Israel”.
German police have frequently used the saying as justification to revoke permission for organised protests, or made its avoidance a condition for granting their permission.
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