Following their participation in the Defend SOAS 2 campaign international webinar on 1 March around state repression of the Palestine solidarity movement, a comrade from Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
(FRFI) spoke to activists from the Berlin-based group Palestine on Trial to find out more about their work and context.

FRFI: Can you tell us a bit about your campaign Palestine on Trial; when it formed and what its objectives are? 

Palestine on Trial: We began monitoring trials in April 2024, building on earlier work by an anti-racist Court Watch group. When cases related to Palestine solidarity began to rapidly increase, part of the collective decided to focus specifically on these trials.

Germany provides unconditional diplomatic cover for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and is the second-largest military supplier to Israel. Inside Germany, the state is using its bureaucracy and legal apparatus to repress people who stand in solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza. 

Since October 2023, Germany has intensified repression of pro-Palestinian expression through unlawful bans on demonstrations and other forms of assemblies, police violence against solidarity events, cancelations, funding cuts, institutional attacks such as blocking bank accounts and banning cultural symbols like keffiyehs. These measures are justified under the doctrine of Staatsräson (reason of the state) which is used to demand unconditional support for Israel¹.

This repression has merged with escalating anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racism and overall scapegoating of refugees and migrants. Policies increasingly link citizenship to support for Israel’s existence, accelerate deportations, and portray Palestine solidarity, Arab and Muslim communities as security threats. Many activists describe this as the most hostile environment for Palestinians and Arabs in the history of the Federal Republic. This is the context in which PoT began its work.

Palestine on Trial has three main goals:

• Solidarity: showing up to support defendants in court.
• Record-keeping: documenting proceedings to create a historical record of repression.
• Correcting the narrative: challenging the state’s version of events by publicly reporting what actually happens in court.

FRFI: What kinds of cases are you seeing and are there any patterns emerging in these?

Palestine on Trial: The scale of repression is enormous. In Berlin alone, police have generated approximately 12,000 cases related to what they call the ‘Middle East situation.’

Most of the cases observed fall into several recurring categories.

Symbol offences

Many prosecutions concern slogans or symbols, including:

• ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’
• ‘Zionists are fascists’
• red triangles 
• raised fists

Authorities justify these prosecutions by claiming to combat ‘imported antisemitism’ or ‘terrorism.’ Germany’s domestic intelligence agency bans certain organisations such as Hamas or Samidoun and labels others, including Jewish Voice for Peace, as extremist. By linking slogans or symbols to banned organisations, police can arrest demonstrators and initiate prosecutions.

Campus dissent

Another frequent pattern involves trespassing, breach of the peace and property damage charges against students. These cases occur when students occupy university spaces to demand an end to academic collaboration with Israeli institutions complicit in the genocide in Gaza. In these cases, university leaderships call the police on their own students, and press charges against them. Some universities have expelled students and banned them from university premises. 

Police confrontation cases

Many cases arise during demonstrations and involve charges such as resisting arrest, assaulting or insulting police officers. These charges often follow situations where demonstrators refuse to immediately disperse after police abruptly decide to dissolve a protest, change its route, or during sit-ins or flash mobs. Some cases involve minor acts, such as throwing a keffiyeh at police officers or verbally insulting police by saying ‘Your grandparents were Nazis’, ‘You have brains smaller than animals’, ‘Assholes’ and ‘Fuck off.’

In around 90% of resisting-arrest or insulting-police cases where video evidence exists, footage contradicts police testimony. In these cases, defendants are frequently acquitted or charges are dropped.

Digital surveillance

The domestic intelligence agency has reportedly created a special task force monitoring social media accounts of people suspected of Palestine solidarity. In some cases, individuals have been denounced by ‘friends’ for social media posts. Raids, equipment confiscations, and charges for incitement have followed.

Although many cases are dropped before trial and others end in acquittals or small fines, the process itself acts as punishment through legal costs, stress and uncertainty. The legal system is used as a form of state-sponsored lawfare designed to exhaust and intimidate activists.

Those most affected include:

• Palestinians – who, unless they have dual nationally such Lebanese or Syrian – are often then classified as stateless;
• German-Palestinians who, having mostly grown up in Germany and therefore speaking the language perfectly, are treated different to their fellow Palestinians 
• people without secure residency status;
• refugees and migrants;
• people of colour;
• queer people;
• students.

These groups are already vulnerable due to state policies and are then disproportionately targeted.

Pre-emptive protest bans

Demonstrations have been pre-emptively banned. For example, Nakba demonstrations in Berlin in 2022 and 2023 were prohibited on the grounds that ‘young people from the Arab diaspora’ were supposedly too emotional to exercise their right to assembly. They justified it by claiming:

‘Based on experiences from previous years and the recent past, further findings, and a forecast, the assembly authority’s review concluded that there is an immediate risk that the assemblies will lead to: incitement to hatred, antisemitic chants, glorification of violence, incitement to violence and thus intimidation, and acts of violence.’

The Palestine Congress, organised by German, Palestinian, and Jewish left-wing organisations, was banned in Berlin in April 2024. Shortly after the Congress began, surrounded by hundreds of police officers; they stormed the venue and stopped the event from taking place. Palestinian-British surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta was denied entry to Germany and the 86-year-old Nakba survivor and scientist Salman Abu Sitta was prohibited from participating by video. Die Linke (the Left) Berlin party congress shamefully remained complicit in state repression by failing to condemn the police for storming the Palestine Congress and violently dismantling the protest camp in front of the German parliament.

All these bans have since been found to be unlawful by the courts.

FRFI: Do you think the Palestine on Trial campaign has made a difference?

Palestine on Trial: Our impact is solidarity with the defendants. As volunteers we try to attend as many trials as we can. When we are there, the defendants know that they are not alone; they are being seen and despite vicious efforts to criminalise people protesting the genocide, there are people who stand in solidarity with them. Waiting rooms are filled with uniformed and civilian clad police, as prosecutors almost exclusively rely on police testimony in Palestine-related cases. Practically this also means that defendants are not left alone sitting in small waiting rooms opposite the police officers who brutalised them. 

By attending trials, we bear witness to the injustice and document cases to create a historical record of the repression of Palestine solidarity in Germany.

Silencing of anti-genocide voices is pervasive. Many defendants use the courtroom to speak about the genocide in Gaza, the Israeli occupation, the ongoing Nakba, German complicity, and police brutality. 

By writing reports and articles, participating in panel discussions and community events we shed light and expose how the legal system is used against the Palestine solidarity movement and by doing that we counter the narrative presented by state authorities and legacy media.

FRFI: What has the reaction of the courts been to the work of Palestine on Trial?

Palestine on Trial: Criminal trials of adults in Germany are public by law, so court observers have the right to attend hearings and take notes. However, there are frequent attempts to make monitoring difficult or to intimidate supporters.

• hearing rooms are sometimes changed at the last minute

• even minor cases are often held in high-security court rooms where:
• we must pass through strict security checks similar to airport procedures
• belongings such as stationery must be left in lockers
• we are given only a sheet of paper and a dull pencil
• there are no toilets available and water is not allowed inside
• security staff have occasionally tried to prevent us from wearing keffiyehs and other Palestine symbols
• our ID cards are being copied by security personnel

Supporters also often organise small gatherings outside the courthouse when their comrades appear. In some cases, these have been violently dispersed by police and later prosecuted. In one absurd case, a defendant was acquitted for chanting ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ while supporters chanting the same slogan outside the courthouse after the verdict were arrested.

Despite the deeply political nature of these trials, inside the courtroom itself, judges and prosecutors often present themselves as politically neutral and insist that the broader political context – including the genocide in Gaza – should not be discussed during proceedings. 

Often times prosecutors and sometimes judges have referred to the genocide in Gaza as ‘Israel’s reaction to the 7 of October’.

FRFI: Has Palestine on Trial been offered any support from the German ‘left’ and ‘labour’ movement and what is their attitude to the Palestine solidarity movement and the state repression and criminalisation it is facing?

Palestine on Trial: The German left, with few exceptions, has failed to oppose the genocide and the criminalization of Palestine solidarity. More than two years into Israel’s genocide in Gaza – and amid Germany’s rapid slide toward militarism and authoritarianism – much of the left remains silent or complicit. Many of the few that dared to speak up were promptly cancelled and/or expelled from their own party, Die Linke. This has been slowly changing in the last half a year, about a year and a half of genocide too late.

A particularly influential current, the so-called Anti-Deutsche within the broader anti-fascist scene, continues to frame Palestinian solidarity primarily through accusations of antisemitism rather than confronting state repression. Originally rooted in anti-German and anti-capitalist politics, this white German movement has evolved into a hardline supporter of Israel and the US that actively opposes pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist movements. In doing so, sections of the German left now share the same distorted definition of antisemitism as the political establishment and the Zionist right – one that labels almost any criticism of Israel as antisemitic and relies on the law enforcement agencies to punish those who they consider antisemites. 

FRFI: German police violence against solidarity protestors has become a common sight, how is this justified by the political parties and media and has there been any consequences for any of the officers involved? How much of a factor is racism and sexism in this crackdown?

Palestine on Trial: Police brutality against pro-Palestinian demonstrators has been widespread and the silence about it from the establishment, be that political parties or civil society organisations has been deafening. Peaceful demonstrators are being dragged, beaten and groped by riot police. Police officers often operate behind helmets and identification numbers change from one operation to another, making accountability difficult. This is not a glitch in the system; this is how the system is designed. To our knowledge, no police officer in Berlin has been prosecuted for excessive force or for lying in court in relation to these demonstrations. Instead, what often occurs is a victim-perpetrator reversal: demonstrators who experience police violence are themselves charged with offences such as resisting arrest or assaulting officers. Repression is justified by spreading narratives about combating terrorism, or ‘imported’ extremism. These narratives are widely reproduced in mainstream media and help frame Palestine solidarity activism as a public security threat. 

Racism also plays a significant role. Protest bans have been justified by claiming that young people from the Arab diaspora are too emotional, prone to violence, supporters of terrorism and antisemites. German media actively promote this narrative and contribute to manufacturing consent by toeing the party line and misrepresenting the genocide in Gaza. Journalistic standards are being disregarded, police reports are taken verbatim while Palestinian perspectives are largely absent from the media coverage. The climate of self-censorship permeates media rooms. 

FRFI: Can you briefly tell us about the case of the Ulm 5 and the struggle of political prisoners in Germany?  

Palestine on Trial: Right now, we have a very serious case in the Palestine solidarity movement, the case of the Ulm 5. On 8 September 2025, five Berlin based activists entered the premises of Elbit Germany, and carried out actions aimed to prevent genocide. They filmed themselves the whole time and waited peacefully for the police to arrest them. Ever since that day all five have been in preventive detention, exceeding the legal maximum of six months.  The detention conditions and the charges they face have raised serious concerns about their proportionality.

To be very brief: most of them are held from 20 up to 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. They have had restrictions imposed on talking with or receiving visits or letters from their relatives and friends. All their communications, including with lawyers, are being monitored.

In a clear political move aimed to further criminalise the Palestine solidarity movement these activists are being charged, on top of property damage, and the now catch-all ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’ charge, with Section 129 of the German Criminal Code that criminalises membership in, or support of, a criminal organisation.This section129 has been in the past used to criminalise political dissident, from the communists in the 1950s, to the antifascists of the 1980s and 90s, to the Kurdish rights movement of the last decades, to the climate activists of the 2020s.

The state charging these five friends with forming a criminal organisation and their horrific prison conditions are part of the disproportionate and exemplary lawfare that the German state is exerting against the movement. Under the guise of protecting the rule of law, Germany has activists in solitary prison conditions that are widely considered torture, and that is even before they have to partake in a show trial.

FRFI: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Palestine on Trial: The repression of Palestine solidarity in Germany is reprehensible, but our grassroots movement consisting of people from different communities and all walks of life is growing. We will continue to organise, resist and keep talking about the genocide in Gaza, occupation and apartheid in the West Bank, and all war crimes and crimes against humanity in Lebanon and Iran. 

1 In 2008 then Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Israeli Knesset that, as a result of Germany’s historic response for the Holocaust, the security of Israel was now a fundamental principle for the German state.