Germany court case for ‘from the river to sea’ chant delayed

A Berlin court has postponed the trial of a pro-Palestine activist in Germany for using the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free".

The activist identified as ‘Daria’ by their lawyer was set to face a hearing at a district court in Berlin on Thursday on charges of the 'circulation of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations’.

However, the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) announced the trial will now be postponed to 11 November.

"Hundreds of people had gathered in front of the courthouse in solidarity. After addressing the crowd with a speech, Daria was brutally arrested by the Berlin police. There were approximately a dozen arrests in total," ELSC said in a statement on X on Thursday.

"The judge claimed he was not aware of the huge public interest for this case and would require more time and attention to properly assess it," the organisation added.

Nadija Samour, a lawyer for the ELSC hit out at the trial against Daria in a speech made outside the court.

"This is an attack on the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and stands on a shaky legal basis. However, this is a highly political case, the court might seek to forward the case to a higher court by imposing a financial penalty on Daria in this first instance", she said.

"We will then definitely appeal and expect to win at a higher tribunal," she continued.

A similar trial took place earlier this month and saw a court in Berlin convict an activist for 'condoning a crime' for chanting "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" at a demonstration.

Ava Moayeri, a German-Iranian national, was arrested just days after Israel's war on Gaza began on 7 October when she was accused of "condoning the assault by Hamas" for reciting the chant at a protest near the Sonnenallee, a boulevard with a large number of Arabic restaurants and shops, in the Neukölln district, which the activist co-organised.

The Berlin court argued that because the demonstration happened on 11 October using the slogan was a criminal offence, referring to the 'endorsement of criminal acts'.

Before the trial started, Moayeri said in a statement that she had stood by her words but viewed them as positioning for peace in the region rather than support for Hamas. She also asserted that she had rejected "any form of antisemitism".

Pro-Israel groups allege that the phrase calls for the "annihilation" of Israel and is associated with Palestinian group Hamas, deemed a terrorist organisation by the US, UK and European Union.

However, the use of "from the river to the sea’" is more widely understood as a call for Palestinian self-determination, equal rights, and the end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land.

Legal experts have noted there were growing attempts to criminalise the use of the phrase as part of wider suppression of the pro-Palestine solidarity movement.

In November, Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declared the slogan illegal and punishable by a three-year prison sentence. The ministry of justice later said the phrase was 'a Hamas slogan'.