A 22-year-old Berlin student has been found guilty of incitement and fined €600 for chanting “from the river to the sea” at a pro-Palestinian demonstration last October.
In advance of the closely-watched district court ruling, the protester said she stood by her use of the controversial slogan. It was intended as a show of support for peace in the region, she said, and not as a show of support for Hamas.
Tuesday’s ruling was the first time a court imposed a conviction based on a new provision of the criminal code, introduced last November, around the term “from the river to the sea”.
While Palestinian activists describe the refrain as a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and occupation of Palestinian territory, Israelis hear a call for the elimination of their homeland from between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan river.
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The Berlin district court ruled that the woman’s use of the phrase, four days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, could only be understood as an endorsement of the attack and a denial of Israel’s right to exist.
About 100 supporters gathered for the ruling outside the district court in Berlin. Many wore the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf and sang “You are not alone”.
While this is Germany’s first conviction linked to the phrase, not all judges in Germany have taken the same approach as the Berlin court to the new criminal code provision.
In June, a regional court in the southwestern city of Mannheim described the phrase as being of a “general nature”, with a complex history.
Similarly, Bavaria’s highest administrative court said the phrase could be punishable by law if used in a context of support for Hamas. It dismissed a case in June when state prosecutors were unable to produce any evidence of pro-Hamas support.
Nine months after the new provision came into effect, Berlin lawyer Benjamin Düsberg, involved in similar cases, estimates that several hundred prosecutions are under way for use of the phrase.
“This provision is a very big problem because it suggests the phrase, which has a very complex history, is simply a slogan of Hamas,” Mr Düsberg. “It’s very likely this will go to the constitutional court and be stopped there.”
Germany’s Central Council of Jews has also made an urgent call for “clarity” about the use of the phrase, which it argues is a “Hamas battle cry [for] the annihilation of Israel and the expulsion and destruction of the Jews living there”..
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