There are significantly more than the registered 5000 participants who came to the harbor park on the banks of Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate against Israel’s action in the Gaza War. The organizers speak of the “largest demonstration for Palestine” in Frankfurt since the beginning of the war. And the police also assume that more than 10,000 demonstrators have joined the protest. But until the entourage actually marches off, almost two hours pass. The police mocked that banned posters would continue to be shown in the demonstration train.
The demonstration was heavily discussed in Frankfurt. After an attack on Jewish activists organized by left -wing climate protectors in the Grünburgpark, more and more demands came to ban the “United 4 Gaza” alliance – also because a demonstration of the activists in Berlin had occurred.
Many speakers make comparisons between the Gaza War and Holocaust
A ban was then actually pronounced by the city, but after contradictions of the applicants, both the Frankfurt Administrative Court and the Administrative Court in Kassel decided that it was “disproportionate”. The controversial demonstration was no longer in the way.
At the start in the harbor park, many speakers make comparisons between the Gaza War and the Holocaust. A speaker speaks of the fact that the Gaza Strip is today a “extermination camp” and a “concentration camp”, another equates Zionism with fascism and calls Israel a “terrorist”. A man wears a sweater with the inscription: “Germany, you have learned nothing! Back then perpetrator, today sponsor”. Violence against Israelis is also approved: “Every form of resistance is fair,” says a speech. “Resistance is the only language that cannot be ignored”.
The demonstrators are mixed. You can see many women with a headscarf and Kufiya, the so-called Palestinian scarf, but also pensioners in bright red DKP shirts or punks with colorful hair. A striking number of families with young children have come to the harbor park, thousands of Palestine flags are swiveled. Numerous demonstrators have cooking pots with them to protest against hunger in Gaza. A cousin of the Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by the Israeli military, also gives a speech on the loudspeaker car. “The world watched, nobody did something,” he complains.
Accompanied by drummakers, the demonstrators finally go off towards the city center. “Viva Palestine”, call them, in Arabic, the slogan “Palestine is Arabic” can be heard, soon the slogan “Children’s Murderer Israel”. The police stop the deployment when the call “From the River to the Sea” is channeled. The police had drawn attention to the fact that the saying was allowed according to the applicable case law, but could still be punished under certain circumstances. According to a police spokesman, the slogan could be rated legally differently if it is called out of a meeting of thousands of people. On the loudspeaker car that drives at the beginning of the demonstration, an activist calls it “ridiculous”.
The police are stopped by the police several times, but after a few minutes the activists can move on. On the loudspeaker car, a man now roars “Nazi promotion Israel”. And again and again calls for an intifada, an armed uprising against Israel, can also be heard. “Resistance in every country”, demand the demonstrators in the speech choir, among them is also a woman who bears a poster with the drawn face of the Palestinian terrorist Leila Chaled: As a member of the terrorist organization Volksfront to liberate Palestine (PflP), Chaled was involved in two aircraft drafts.
Shortly before the demonstration train reaches the Roßmarkt, where the final rally is to run, it is stopped by the police again. The reason: A speaker on the loudspeaker car downdated Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. According to the FAZ, the activist is Mahmud O. from Mannheim, spokesman for the Zaytouna Rhein-Neckar group. He presented a poem. “When they brought the fences in October, they called it a crime,” he said. “Palestine can fight back, with stones and rifles.”
The activist O. had to leave the loudspeaker car, the police gave him a ban on speech. Criminal proceedings were initiated against him.
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