Palestine flags and keffiyehs – also on Potsdamer Platz: On Sunday afternoon, a large group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators met in Mitte; Upon request, the police estimated the number of participants at around 1,000 people.
Many of the demonstrators waved the Palestinian flag or wore corresponding scarves and chanted “Free Free Palestine”. These were mainly Arabic-speaking demonstrators. What was striking was how many children, young and older women took part and protested loudly. Slogans such as “Stop the genocide in Gaza” could be read on posters. The mood was heated right from the start. During the early evening, sporadic pyrotechnics also flew at the officers. They, in turn, defended themselves against the angry crowd with pepper spray.
The 1,000 demonstrators were confronted by several hundred police, and the officers initially surrounded the demonstrators after they arrived. Later they focused primarily on specifically pulling individuals out of the crowd. In total, a police spokesman told the Berliner Zeitung that 500 emergency services were deployed throughout Berlin on Sunday to deal with the gathering situation. Most of them were called to Potsdamer Platz late in the afternoon to get the tense situation under control.
Hundreds demonstrate for Palestine on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The police are repeatedly surrounded by demonstrators. pic.twitter.com/oGogMgVCq5
— Niklas Liebetrau (@NiklasLiebetrau) October 15, 2023
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The loudspeakers in the police vehicles repeatedly called on the demonstrators to vacate the square immediately. The police speak of nine urgent requests that were not followed. They now want to record the personal details of suspected ringleaders and get them out of the group, “in the hope that it will then disband,” said the police. A representative of the “Palestinian Community of Berlin” also appealed in Arabic to leave the square. Around 7 p.m. the square gradually became emptier.
Police initially do not stop the display of pro-Palestinian symbols
Today’s demonstration was preceded by a registered “vigil for the civilian victims of the people of the Middle East” on Potsdamer Platz, which was then “hijacked by the 1,000 demonstrators,” as the police said. The initiator of the originally planned vigil distanced himself from the expansion into a demonstration. Among the participants were well-known faces from the “Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun”.
Police classified the meeting as another banned replacement meeting for a pro-Palestinian gathering that had already been banned on October 11. Gatherings of this kind are prohibited until October 17th. In the past few days, such gatherings have occurred again and again throughout the city. However, this Sunday’s was by far the largest since the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on October 7th. It is to be expected that there will be repeated demonstrations of solidarity for Palestine in the next few days.
Police officers try to stop the banned Palestine demonstration on Potsdamer Platz.Niklas Liebetrau
Despite individual firecracker attacks on the police, most of the demonstrators today appeared emotional but remained calm. Many demanded to be allowed to express their sympathy for the people of Palestine in the spirit of freedom of expression. Some of them told the police that this had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. One can show solidarity with the people of Palestine without being anti-Semitic. There was even a man with a Star of David around his neck among the demonstrators. On his sign he had written in English the words “Many Jews refuse to cover Israel’s crimes.” He shouted at the police officers and called them “animals”.
At today’s demonstration, the police were once again consistent, but not overly brutal. As with the previous pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent days, their attacks targeted individual spokesmen.
2023-10-15 21:53:43
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