A German court on Tuesday fined a woman $655 for using the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” during a protest last year, a ruling her lawyer slammed as an attack on free speech. The 22-year-old was represented in Berlin by attorney Alexander Gorski, who said the decision Tuesday was “a dark day for freedom of expression.”
“My client has only expressed the hope of democratic coexistence for all people in this region,” he said, adding the woman named Ava M would appeal. A spokeswoman of the court said that the woman was found to have used the slogan at a demonstration in Berlin’s Neukoelln district on October 11, days after the Gaza war began.
One of the reporters of court said the judges held that the use of the phrase “could only be understood as a denial of Israel’s right to exist and an endorsement” of Hamas’s October 7 attack. As of October 11, Israel had gone ahead to kill 1,537 Palestinians, according to local authorities, which is more than the number of Israelis killed in the October 7 attack. Antiwar activists had been organizing protests calling for a ceasefire at that time.
Israel’s supporters say the slogan calls for the destruction of Israel. In November, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned the use of the phrase. However, Israel controls the entirety of the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where it is imposing a system of apartheid on Palestinians, leading rights groups say.
Moreover, Israeli politicians routinely refer to a map of their country that includes occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli politicians say, essentially, that Israel goes from the river to the sea. Germany has been one of Israel’s closest allies and is its most prominent provider of weapons. The Israeli offensive against Gaza has killed at least 39,653 people, leveled large parts of the territory, and brought its more than two million inhabitants close enough to starvation.
Internally, Berlin has ratcheted up its repression of Palestinian rights activists. At the start of this year, the country passed a bill asking any immigrant who wants German citizenship to confirm Israel’s right to exist. In April, German police canceled a pro-Palestine conference in Berlin.
Authorities have habitually broken up protests against the war on Gaza and assaulted or detained protesters. Earlier this year, Germany banned British Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah from entering the country. He had spent months working in Gaza during the early months of the war.
