Uh oh, you said “from the river to the sea” in your title for this post.
Oh no, now I said it too!
Search for criminal publications on social media
Police report from March 13, 2024
Joint report from the police and public prosecutor’s office in Berlin Nr. 0542 This morning, police forces on behalf of the Berlin public prosecutor’s office searched the apartment of a woman in Tempelhof on the basis of a search warrant from the Tiergarten district court because of the accusation of using the symbols of unconstitutional organizations. The 41-year-old is accused of having published criminal content relating to Hamas and the current Middle East conflict on social networks in four cases since October 2023, such as the slogan “From the river to the sea”. During the search, three cell phones, two computers and a hard drive were found and confiscated. The woman was temporarily arrested to carry out identification measures and was then released. The evaluation of the confiscated devices and further investigations are ongoing.
So Germany doesn’t have freedom of speech? I thought you were allowed to say whatever you want and the government can’t prosecute you for it.
Not anymore.
Most countries have de facto freedom of speech, but not all have it enumerated. Even those that do put limits on it.
Germany has strong laws against use of Nazi symbols. There are exceptions for art, teaching etc. She may have fallen afoul of that. I wonder if netanyahu ever comes to Germany, if he’ll be prosecuted too, given he used the same language.
To the best of my knowledge “From the river to the see” is not a Nazi symbol… That law is not relevant here.
I thought by referencing symbols of unconstitutional organisations, they were referring to that. However, I’m basing off Google translate version.
Netanyahu is an avowed ally of Germany and Germany has rebuked all calls of genocide.
Yes, my point is about using the language, which he also used, as a reason for prosecution. The point of their anti Nazi laws is to protect from recurrence of antisemitism. Now, they find themselves allied with Israel committing genocide, using genocidal language and protecting people saying the same language. It’s becoming Kafkaesque, with a hint of orwellian doublespeak.
A year or two ago, members of US Nazi band Hammerskins were arrested in Germany. And they bestowed a lot of love upon Ukraine, a country that has Stepan Bandera as monument.
