Germany’s Federal Courtroom of Justice is to resolve whether or not the controversial pro-Palestinian slogan “From the river to the ocean, Palestine shall be free” needs to be thought-about an emblem of a terrorist group.
A Berlin courtroom final week discovered a lady responsible of utilizing an emblem of a terrorist group after she had posted the phrase on her publicly accessibly Instagram profile, and imposed a high-quality of €1,300 ($1,370).
The 42-year-old Iranian citizen has now lodged an attraction with the Federal Courtroom of Justice in Karlsruhe, in accordance with a spokeswoman for the courtroom on Thursday.
The presiding choose within the Berlin case, Susann Wettley, stated the slogan is an emblem of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group, which the European Union classifies as a terrorist group.
The slogan requires a free Palestine stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, an space the place the state of Israel is situated.
Many activists say the phrase is a rallying cry for peace and equality for Palestinians. Others argue it’s anti-Semitic and a name for Israel’s destruction.
Germany courts have to date assessed the slogan otherwise.
The Berlin ruling was the primary time the slogan has been assessed as an emblem of a terrorist group, prosecutor Tim Kaufmann stated.
Wettley stated that particularly after the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7 final yr, the German public got here to affiliate the slogan with the group.
She stated the defendant had unfold the phrase figuring out that Hamas was categorised as a terrorist group, including that the group had embraced the ruling.
German regulation enforcement have sought to crack down on the usage of the phrase.
In August, a courtroom in Berlin fined a protester €600 ($630) for chanting the slogan at a pro-Palestinian rally there.
