Thousands march against Gaza war in Frankfurt after ban overturned

Thousands of people gathered in Frankfurt to protest against the Gaza War on Saturday after the courts canceled the ban on the western city of the German city.

Police reported around 11,000 participants in the Hafenpark starting point, exceeding 5,000 initially recorded.

The demonstrators, carrying Palestinian flags and protest posters, sang slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine” and “from the river to the sea – Palestine will be free”.

The latter sentence was the source of disputes in Germany, some cities continued activists for having used it, while some courts have canceled the convictions.

The walk, held under the banner “United4gaza – Stop the genocide now!” was to proceed from eastern Frankfurt in Rossmarkt in the city center.

Police did not report any major incidents or riot in the afternoon.

However, a speaker of the demonstration was detained after making comments by trivializing the holocaust and on October 7, 2023, attacks from Hamas against Israel, police announced.

The police arrested the man after refusing to comply with their order to end his speech.

According to police, some people have also been informed of the ban on carrying masks. A small number of criminal offenses have been identified, in particular a suspicion of incentive to hatred.

Municipal authorities had already tried to ban the demonstration, citing it as a “potentially anti -Semitic gathering”.

The city said it was concerned about climbing tensions between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli activists.

However, the organizer challenged the ban and won the case before the Frankfurt Administrative Court on Thursday.

The court judged that the prohibition was unjustified on the basis of the current police assessment of the police, declaring that a prohibition requires an immediate danger to public security.

The Kassel administrative court also examined the demonstration and decided on Friday that it could continue. The court noted that the police could focus on individual disturbances to maintain fundamental right to freedom of assembly for other participants.