'Anti-racism' rally in Berlin calls for destruction of Israel
Demonstrators at the march hoisted symbols in support of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALUpdated: OCTOBER 17, 2018 05:56Protesters gather to the "#unteilbar", demonstration which aims to "rise up against discrimination, poverty, racism, sexism, disenfranchisement, and nationalism" in Berlin, Germany, October 13, 2018(photo credit: MICHELE TANTUSSI / REUTERS)
BERLIN – A march estimated by police to have included 100,000 demonstrators took place in Germany’s capital on Saturday to protest right-wing extremism.Speakers urged the obliteration of the Jewish state and support for the BDS campaign against Israel.The Jerusalem Post reviewed a video showing two speakers who called for the “liberation of all of Palestine 48” and “We must take a stand and boycott Israel. BDS.” The slogan to “liberate all of Palestine” refers to the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, and is widely considered a euphemism to cleanse Israel of Jews.The German Middle East expert Thomas von der Osten-Sacken wrote an article on the website of the Austrian-based think tank Mena-Watch, with the headline “Speaker at Indivisible demonstration calls for Israel’s destruction.”The protest was called #unteilbar (Indivisible) by its organizers.Demonstrators at the march hoisted symbols in support of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to observers and German media reports.The European Union and the US have designated the PFLP a terrorist group.The speakers who call for genocidal antisemitism against Israel and BDS delivered their talks under the banner of the pro-BDS and pro-PFLP organization International Alliance.The Post reviewed photographs of supporters and flags from the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany at the Indivisible march. The Marxist-Leninist Party formed an alliance with sympathizers of the PFLP.The participation of left-wing extremists and radical Islamists at the Indivisible march caused Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party in Berlin to voice its opposition to the event.The Iranian-regime controlled Islamic Center of Hamburg was present at the march. The city-state of Hamburg’s intelligence agency monitors the Islamic Center of Hamburg because it is considered a threat to Hamburg’s democratic system. The Islamic Republic of Iran-dominated center in Hamburg plays a key role in the annual al-Quds Day rally in Berlin, calling for the elimination of Israel.The Central Council of Muslims, which is an umbrella organization for groups with ties to the fascist Turkish Grey Wolves and anti-Western Islamic entities, participated in the march.The prominent German-Turkish lawyer and liberal Muslim Seyran Ates told BILD, “It is a very naïve idea of tolerance when one demonstrates with people on the street who do not want tolerance.”BILD reported that one protester held a sign stating “The Zionists hide in the intelligence agency and lead terror in the world.”BILD also wrote that the sign represents “classic antisemitic slogans that have nothing to do with reality.” The pro-BDS Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network was also present at the march. Three German intelligence reports and the Bundestag label boycott activity against Israel to be an expression of antisemitism.One aim of Indivisible was to counter the outbreak of right-wing extremism, xenophobia and neo-Nazism in the east German city of Chemnitz in September.A spokeswoman for Indivisible, Theresa Hartmann, told the Berlin-based paper B.Z that the event’s organizers rejects hatred of Israel and that the anti-Israel agitators “did not speak on the official stage but the organization has responsibility for what took place at our demonstration.”She said Indivisible distances itself from the anti-Jewish state speeches because its departs from the “joint consensus” of the demonstration.
