Second pro-Palestine activist faces trial in Germany for 'from river to sea' chant

A second pro-Palestine activist in Germany is facing trial for the use of the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", in a case that rights groups say is part of an alarming state-led suppression of public support for Gaza.

Germany has implemented a crackdown on pro-Palestine demonstrations and cultural events since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza, last October, seeing the arrest of activists and the banning of protests.

An activist identified as 'Daria' by their lawyer will face a hearing at a district court in Berlin on Thursday on charges of the 'circulation of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations'.

Lawyer Nadija Samour from the European Legal Support Centre, who is representing Daria, said that the case is on a "shaky legal basis" and it was a "highly political case".

Activists are expected to gather outside the courthouse during Daria's trial on Thursday, which takes place at the Berlin court Amtsgericht Tiergarten.

A similar trial took place earlier this month which 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".

The presiding judge, Birgit Balzer rejected Moayeri's defence and alleged that the chant had "denied the right of the state of Israel to exist".

Balzer added that the phrase was particularly controversial in Germany, and the nation must make Jewish people in the country feel "safe and comfortable" after the Nazis' systematic murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

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'.

Following Faeser’s directive, German police have used the phrase to revoke permission for pro-Palestine protests or conditionally allow the demonstrations to take place as long as the chant is not used.

Activists have warned that it has given police leeway to use force against protesters, with dozens of people reportedly hit by police officers during tense demonstrations.

As a strong supporter of Israel, the German government has been cracking down on pro-Palestine activism and protests. Some allege that its support is on the matter of ‘Staatsräson’, or reason of state, over its responsibility for the Holocaust.