Thousands of people gathered in front of Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate on Saturday, demanding an end to “the genocide in Gaza” as well as a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Around 12,000 people joined the rally in the center of the German capital condemning Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to police figures.
But the far-left BSW party, which had called the demonstration, estimated turnout at 20,000 people, making it one of the largest pro-Palestinian rallies in Germany in recent months.
Marie Atwan, a 20-year-old student, told AFP that she had come from Hamburg to join the rally to demand “a complete halt to German arms deliveries” to Israel.
Not banning those weapons sales amounted to supporting “the genocide in Gaza,” she said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced in August that Berlin — Israel’s second largest arms supplier — had suspended sales of arms to Israel that could be used in the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Merz announced the German arms embargo amid broad European condemnation of the Israeli security cabinet’s recent approval of a plan to conquer Gaza City in October.
Elit Hadilovic, 22, who was at the demonstration, told AFP that he was shocked by the situation in Gaza, where “innocent children [are] dying and suffering from hunger.”
During the rally, BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht also touched on the war in Ukraine, demanding that Berlin commit “to peace negotiations — both in the Middle East and in Ukraine.”
In light of its historical responsibility for the Holocaust, Germany has made support for the State of Israel a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
But Berlin has grown increasingly critical of the Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza and its impact on Palestinian civilians in recent months as the humanitarian situation has worsened, with the UN declaring famine in parts of the coastal territory.
The charge has been denied by Israel, with the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry body that oversees aid, accusing the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system of basing its assessment on “biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas.”
Citing data from the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the PMO said that Israel has facilitated the entry of millions of tons of aid into Gaza since the war there was triggered by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which saw the murder of more than 1,200, and abduction of 251, mostly civilians.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 64,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.