German police shut pro-Palestinian camp over Thunberg invite
Berlin silencing and threatening activists who are speaking up against genocide, she says
BERLIN: German police have closed a pro-Palestinian protest camp that had invited Greta Thunberg, a vocal critic of Israel, who accused authorities of silencing activists.
Police pointed to the fact that the Swedish climate activist had attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin on Monday - the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel - that ended in clashes with police.
Police in the western city of Dortmund on Tuesday shut a four-month-old protest camp that had invited the 21-year-old activist.
Police said they had carried out a “risk assessment” and found that Thunberg’s visit would have drawn large crowds.
They amended an initial statement to delete a reference to Thunberg as a “potentially violent” activist.
Thunberg protested the move in a video message on social media site X, speaking with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf over her shoulders.
She said that after Dortmund protesters announced the invitation, “police came and told them that they had to pack up the camp and leave and that I would get arrested if I went there.”
“Germany is silencing and threatening activists who are speaking up against the genocide and occupation in Palestine,” she charged.
In an earlier video from the Berlin rally, Thunberg voiced anger about “how Germany and German police are treating peaceful protesters who are saying no to genocide”.
The Berlin rally ended with disturbances in which protesters hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police.
Germany, at pains to atone for the Holocaust, often stresses its strong support for Israel and Jewish communities everywhere.
It has also urged Israel to comply with international law in the Gaza conflict and called for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.
Conservative politician Alexander Throm of the CDU-CSU demanded Thunberg, a founder of the Fridays For Future climate protest movement,be barred from the country.
He told the Bild daily that “there is no place in Germany for haters of Jews, like Greta Thunberg”.
Throm said the Swede was abusing her prominence as a climate activist and called on Fridays for Future “to expressly distance themselves from Thunberg”.