‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and other chants for freedom and against genocide are freedom of expression, despite government efforts to criminalise pro-Palestinian protest
In a huge victory for human rights, for humanity and for the Palestinian people, the Münster Administrative Court in north-west Germany has ruled that chants and slogans frequently used in pro-Palestinian, anti-genocide rallies and marches are not illegal.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Child murderer Israel” are not only legal but are protected by freedom of expression laws. “Stop the genocide in Gaza” has already been ruled legal by the Cologne Administrative Court.
The German state, which has some of the most extreme laws protecting Israel from criticism of its actions, has used riot police and draconian action to try to quell the protests.
Palestinian legal advocacy group the European Legal Support Center, which has been fighting the cases on behalf of the movement, noted that:
In both decisions, the judge reiterated that criticism of the Israeli state is protected by freedom of expression, stressing that the slogans are directed against Israel & not against the Jewish population of Germany, thus rejecting any inflammatory allegations of antisemitism.
Both court decisions followed protest bans issued by the Police. We congratulate the activists and their lawyers who refused to be silenced and boldly challenged the bans!
The decisions come as the UK government continues to try to demonise protesters and to use anti-terror laws to persecute activists working for human rights and justice in Palestine and to stop Israel’s mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing of civilians, which has taken approaching 30,000 innocent lives so far, around half of them children. Many more have been hideously wounded and more than seven out of ten of Gaza’s 2.2 million people are reported to be in severe hunger.
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Can someone tell the Yanks, criticism of Israel is not AS
Herr Flick can you pass it onto the Fuhrer
Excellent news from Germany, against those who think calling something antisemitic is sufficient for that accusation to be true.
The world has rarely seen cynicism like it.
It is not the first time that a European Court has ruled that the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, is protected speech and not antisemetic.
“The Dutch court of appeal has given legal protection to the Palestinian liberation chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, on free speech grounds.
On 15 August, the appeal court – whose rulings are final and cannot be appealed – acquitted Thomas Hofland, a pro-Palestine activist who used the popular chant in a speech he delivered at a Nakba day rally in Amsterdam in May 2021.”
follow the link
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/10/29/israel-threatens-to-bomb-another-gazan-hospital/#comment-250393
Herr Flick
It is also chanted by members of the far right Likud party, you know the same people who send suitcases full of shekels into Gaza to prop up Hamas
Can you ask the Fuhrer what borders the Jewish State should have