Judge says phrase ‘denied right of Israel to exist’ but woman’s lawyer says ruling is a defeat for free speech

A Berlin court has convicted a pro-Palestinian activist of condoning a crime for leading a chant of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally in the German capital four days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, in what her defence team called a defeat for free speech.

The presiding judge, Birgit Balzer, ordered 22-year-old German-Iranian national Ava Moayeri to pay a €600 (£515) fine on Tuesday, rejecting her argument that she meant only to express support for “peace and justice” in the Middle East by calling out the phrase on a busy street.

Balzer said she “could not comprehend” the logic of previous German court rulings that determined the saying was “ambiguous”, saying to her it was clear it “denied the right of the state of Israel to exist”.

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  • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    Now you’re just selectively quoting and ignoring the repeated mentioning by Sholz of Israel as the Jewish State (not a Jewish State) and dissembling by claiming that talking about Jews that live in Germany means he can’t possibly be conflating Israel with Jews; putting up strawmen (please provide a quote of were I claimed german politiocians were unabashedly racist) and making the point that racism can only ever be of the kind as extreme as Ben-Gvir.

    No wonder you think that the kind of politicians that opposed the bringing of an ICC case against Israel for Genocide (so against merely bringing the case, a case which Israel would win if they were not guilty) are being “nuanced”.

    In your, very special, not in the dictionary, definition of the word, “racism” can only be the loud raging ethni-cleansing-demanding kind of the likes of Ben-Gvir (who not long ago was a member of the Israeli government, a government which still includes other people who say the very same kind of thing as he does) and never the soft-spoken kind which provides diplomatic cover for ethno-Fascists committing Genocide along ethnic lines.

    By your very special definitions of “racism” and “nuanced”, the people who morally supported the KKK and even gave them weapons but did not openly participated in their lynchings are “nuanced” and “not racist”.

    I really hope Germany does the right thing eventually (though one wonders how many more tens of thousands of children will have to be murderer by the Zionists before Germany explicitly states that “Germany does not support the current Israeli Government and its actions in Gaza”) and it’s good news that the weapons shipments have been suspended (something I was unaware of). That said, it will have to actually happen to be believed, and things like Germany legally linking words supporting a Free Palestine with anti-semitism and punishing people for saying them casts doubt on there being a true will inside the German Institutions to do so.

    Even if Germany does end up doing the right thing, the shame of having continued to provide moral and diplomatic support to the Zionists even after they murdered tens of thousands of children, will still remain with Germany.

    • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      Now you’re just selectively quoting and ignoring the repeated mentioning by Sholz of Israel as the Jewish State

      I suggest you learn English, then. Compare:

      German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says in Tel Aviv that Berlin will always stand beside the Jewish state, citing its responsibility following the Holocaust.

      German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says in Namibia’s capital Windhoek that Berlin will always stand beside the African state, citing its responsibility following the Herero-Nama genocide.

      How many African states are there? Also, that’s not even a literal quote who knows what Scholz actually said. Also why do you keep misspelling his name, don’t you care about accuracy?