From BZ/dpa
The Berlin police have banned a Palestinian supporter demonstration announced for Wednesday.
A planned rally in solidarity with Palestine at Pariser Platz as well as any alternative events would also be banned, the police announced on X (formerly Twitter) in the evening.
Four days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, a “demo in solidarity with Palestine” was scheduled to take place in the Neukölln district in the afternoon with 250 announced participants.
The police said that carrying out the demonstrations would pose a threat to public safety and order. “In its justification, our assembly authority refers to the current situation in the Middle East and crimes at comparable assembly situations in the past as well as the events last weekend in Berlin,” it continued.
The pro-Palestinian network Samidoun celebrated the attack on Israel on Saturday by distributing sweets on Sonnenallee in Neukölln.
Similar demonstrations had already been banned by the police in the spring because inciting and anti-Semitic slogans, outbreaks of violence and glorification of violence were expected. Courts upheld the bans. There had previously been a Palestinian demonstration in Neukölln at Easter, during which individual participants shouted anti-Semitic slogans, including, according to observers, “Death to the Jews, Death to Israel.”
Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner had spoken out in favor of a ban on Tuesday, before the police announced. As the CDU politician said, public expressions of sympathy and joy for the terrorist attack like those that took place at the weekend in Neukölln should not be repeated.
We will not tolerate celebrations of terror, murder and hostage-taking, he said. “There is no place for anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel in Berlin.” Crimes are punished consistently and the police and judiciary are well positioned, explained Wegner.