German court rules questioning Israel's right to exist cannot be banned outright

BERLIN

A German court has ruled that authorities cannot impose a blanket ban on questioning Israel's right to exist, finding that such restrictions violate freedom of speech protections.

The Higher Administrative Court in North Rhine-Westphalia issued the decision after Dusseldorf authorities banned a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration scheduled for Saturday, claiming that participants would shout slogans denying Israel's right to exist.

The court ruled the ban unlawful, explaining that questioning Israel's right to exist does not itself constitute a criminal offense under German law. "Rather, a critical examination of the founding of the state of Israel and the demand for a peaceful change of existing conditions are fundamentally protected by freedom of expression," the court stated.

The ruling marks a significant challenge to German authorities' restrictive approach toward pro-Palestinian groups, which have faced mounting limitations since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, with hundreds of events and demonstrations banned.

The court made distinctions between three slogans that were to be banned at the demonstration. It ruled that the slogan "There is only one state—Palestine 48" could not be prohibited because it showed no concrete connection to the ideology of Hamas, which is banned in Germany.

However, the court found that banning the slogan "Yalla, yalla, Intifada" was likely lawful. On the widely disputed phrase "From the river to the sea," the court said it could not make a final determination in the emergency proceeding whether using the slogan constitutes a criminal offense as a symbol of the banned Hamas organization.