Friday 3, November
Berlin prepares for biggest Palestine demo yet this Saturday
Last week, 11,000 people took to the streets of Kreuzberg to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Police are expecting an even bigger demonstration this weekend in what will likely be the largest such event since Hamas militants attacked Israeli settlements on October 7.
For several weeks, as the situation in the Middle East worsened, Berlin forbade all pro-Palestinian demonstrations, with unofficial gatherings on Sonnenallee in Neukölln seeing police clash with protesters. Since then, however, the officially permitted gatherings have been overwhelmingly peaceful. As things stand, this event is set to go ahead. The mobilisation has been backed by a large number of left-wing groups including Migrantifa Berlin, DIEM25, Jewish voice for Peace and Palestine Speaks. It is set to meet at 14:00 at the Neptune fountain at Alexanderplatz under the slogan “Free Palestine will not be cancelled”.
The German government has so far been quite explicit in its support for Israel, with further measures being taken on Thursday when the Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) placed an official ban both on the Islamist Palestinian organisation Hamas and the pro-Palestinian network Samidoun.
