German Police Shut Down Pro-Palestine Conference


Read Time: 2 minutes

By Global News Service

On April 12, in another round of repression against Palestine solidarity organizers, German police shut down the Palestine Congress in Berlin. They arrested several attendees and ordered delegates to leave immediately. German officials also prohibited scheduled speaker Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a Palestinian-British surgeon and the rector of Glasgow University, from even entering the country. The Congress aimed to raise awareness about charges of Germany’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in the International Court of Justice, which have been raised by Nicaragua.

German police dramatically stormed the stage of the conference and proceeded to shut down speakers after the Congress had already begun, interrupted and stopped the conference livestream, and broke into the control room to shut off the power. Red Media reported that “900 police are deployed to the congress, whose start they held up for hours. They demanded that organizers allow all German media into the congress, ironically to ‘safeguard free speech’ and then denied entry to most of the registered delegates.”

German police have arrested several activists participating in the Congress, including Jewish activists. Anti-Zionist Jewish activists are heavily targeted in Germany, despite Germany’s attempt to justify its support to Israel as “collective guilt” over the Holocaust and repenting for its infamous antisemitism. Yet, according to researcher Emily Dische-Becker, almost a third of those deplatformed, arrested, or otherwise sanctioned for alleged antisemitism are themselves Jewish. Videos from the repression show a Jewish activist being arrested outside of the conference, with police seizing a banner that read “Jew Against Genocide.”

Credit Line: from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service

Note to Editors: This is a selection of news wire reports that have been edited to be relevant for audiences for the next two weeks. You are welcome to select and publish individual items or the whole stack.


Godfred Meba

View Comments

Recent Posts

The United States Continues Its Attempt to Overthrow Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution: The Forty-Fifth Newsletter (2025)

With rapid military escalation and a redeployed ‘War on Drugs’ narrative, the Trump administration appears…

1 day ago

Worse Than Amin’: Mamdani’s new book takes aim at Museveni’s legacy

by BAKER BATTE In his new book, Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the…

2 days ago

SMG STATEMENT ON THE ELECTORAL CRISIS IN AFRICA

The Accra Collective of the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) notes with deep concern the…

3 days ago

Cabinet approves funds for Ghana Buffer Stock amid food glut concerns

Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga says Cabinet has approved substantial funding for the National Food Buffer…

4 days ago

Sexual Harassment In Tertiary Institutions: Senate Okays 14-Year Jail Term For Offenders

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Amid ceaseless reports of lecturers coercing students for grades, admission advantages…

4 days ago