Hundreds of people gathered near Alexanderplatz in the evening for an anti-Israel demonstration – despite a ban. The mood was aggressive. A police officer was injured and taken to the hospital.
Berlin police broke up a banned anti-Israel demonstration in Berlin’s Mitte district on Tuesday evening . A total of 193 arrests were made during protests related to the Middle East conflict on Tuesday, the police announced in a report on Wednesday.
65 criminal investigations were initiated, including for insult, particularly serious breach of the peace, coercion in traffic, assault and resistance against law enforcement officers, use of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations, and incitement to hatred. In four cases, preventive detention was ordered.Every morning from 6 a.m., editor Lorenz Maroldt and his team report on Berlin’s trials and tribulations in the Tagesspiegel newsletter Checkpoint. Register for free here.
According to police, around 300 people gathered at the Neptune Fountain near Alexanderplatz around 6:40 p.m. According to Tagesspiegel reports, those present included members of the radical anti-Israel camp, such as the banned extremist network “Samidoun.” The mood was aggressive, and scuffles with police broke out.
The police took the personal details of approximately 200 people for prosecution – but at the same time, many unknown participants were also sent away late in the evening. These demonstrators were only accused of administrative offenses and not criminal offenses, a police spokeswoman told the German Press Agency. After four hours, they could no longer be detained; this would have been disproportionate.
The police deliberately removed criminals from the crowd and took the identities of about two-thirds of the participants. Around 11:30 p.m., the operation and the detention of the final third of the demonstrators were ended due to the length of the demonstration and the bad weather.
A Berlin police spokeswoman told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that the police had previously repeatedly warned all demonstrators with a loudspeaker van that they were in a “prohibited gathering” and asked them to leave the square and head toward Kreuzberg. The participants did not comply with this request.
The crowd was to be dispersed by pushing and shoving. “Individual targeted strikes” were also used, according to the police. Because there was resistance and attempts to free prisoners by individual demonstrators, the officers used force, police said. A police water cannon was on standby but was not used.
According to police, one officer was injured during the operation at Alexanderplatz and was taken to hospital.
Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans
Participants at the banned demonstration chanted anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans, including, according to information from the Tagesspiegel, calls in Arabic for a “repeat of October 7.” Demonstrators also reportedly shouted slogans such as “There is only one solution, Intifada Revolution,” “Israel, child murderer,” “There is only one state, Palestine 48,” “Fuck you Israel, Germany is a fascist state,” “Long live the Résistance,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Some of these slogans are considered punishable.
Berlin police deployed a total of 1,500 officers in Berlin on Tuesday evening to enforce the ban on anti-Israel demonstrations and to monitor 21 assemblies and events related to the Middle East conflict. In addition to the Berlin police, officers from Brandenburg, Saxony, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and North Rhine-Westphalia were also deployed.
In the evening, police reported on X that a drone was deployed in the no-fly zone near an exhibition at the former Tempelhof Airport commemorating the victims of the Hamas attack on the Nova Festival on October 7. A 47-year-old man was temporarily arrested, and the drone was confiscated.
In the afternoon, the assembly authority banned the “Stop the Genocide” demonstration announced for 6 p.m., as well as all substitute rallies in the city. The Tagesspiegel learned this from security sources, and the police confirmed the ban shortly afterwards.
Wegner: “Berlin is not a place where bestial murders can be glorified”
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) welcomed the ban. “Berlin is not a place where terror, anti-Semitism, and brutal murders may be glorified,” he said. “The Berlin police are well prepared and have my full support to take robust action against crimes.”
The call for the demonstration justifies the Hamas massacre “as a heroic outburst” and a “beacon of revolutionary hope.” “We do not apologize for their resistance,” the call states. Resistance is their promise. “Let us flood the streets of Berlin on October 7th.”
The police justified the ban by stating that a call on social media for Alexanderplatz had already led to the initiation of criminal investigations and that a mixing of registered groups and others could not be ruled out.
“Based on the experiences of the last few days, we must assume that this will be a non-peaceful event,” the police stated. Police consider alternative gathering notices in the context of pro-Palestinian protests to be substitute events, and these, too, are “fundamentally prohibited” for Tuesday.
The German Police Union (GdP) called the ban absolutely right. “There must be no room for hate and incitement, extremism, and violence on Berlin’s streets,” said GdP state spokesperson Benjamin Jendro. “The abhorrent call for the rally made the direction clear and clearly demonstrated that the organizers are opposing all our democratic principles.”
Ten people in police custody
Police had already taken action against Hamas sympathizers on Tuesday. After a group of people mocked the victims of the Hamas attack during a blockade at the intersection of Warschauer Straße and Stralauer Allee on Tuesday morning , police arrested 17 people for using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations and for coercion in traffic and banned them from participating in all rallies in the state of Berlin on Tuesday. Among the rallies was the slogan “Glory to the fighters.”
The ban on participating in all gatherings on October 7th was in effect until midnight. The reason given was the imminent danger posed by the individuals. According to a police forecast, it was to be expected that they would commit further crimes, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday. The individuals were already known to the police before the action on Tuesday.
A total of 37 people blocked the intersection of Warschauer Straße and Stralauer Allee. Several people chanted the slogan “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free,” which is a criminal offense. According to police, they also held up two banners. According to police, one approximately 15 meters long read: “Glory to the fighters.”
One of the banners was confiscated by the police. The police announced that they were investigating for incitement to hatred. The second poster and a handheld loudspeaker were confiscated. Officers said they had to use force to do so.
At a small rally on Tuesday afternoon with a peak of eight participants on the topic of “Opening the Egyptian border with Palestine, enabling disaster relief,” police arrested the rally leader and expelled her from the event. According to police, the woman had shouted a banned slogan. After a new leader was appointed, the rally continued without disruption.
According to police, the pro-Israel events were largely trouble-free. Only one incident occurred at a spontaneous rally on Rathausstraße in Mitte on the topic of “Free Palestine from Hamas” that evening. An unknown person threw a firecracker at the rally leader, police reported. The woman was not hit
