The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner has issued a report condemning Germany’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, finding that authorities used “excessive force,” confiscated Palestinian flags, and “misused claims of anti-Semitism” to suppress legitimate protest.
The report, authored by Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty, concluded that Germany’s approach was “disproportionate” and that “freedom of expression has been restricted disproportionately, regarding debates on Palestinian rights or legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.”
What Germany Did
Since 2017, Germany has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, which classifies certain statements as anti-Semitic – including “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Under this framework, German authorities have banned pro-Palestinian rallies outright, confiscated Palestinian flags at demonstrations, and prohibited specific slogans from being displayed. Police have physically dispersed protesters and, according to the EU report, used force that exceeded what the situation required.
The EU called on Germany to ensure its anti-hatred efforts “fully respect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression for all members of society.”
The Country That Lectures the World on Human Rights
Germany positions itself as one of Europe’s foremost defenders of democratic values. It regularly issues statements on press freedom in Turkey, protest rights in Russia, and civil liberties in China. Its foreign ministry maintains an annual human rights report evaluating other nations.
Now the EU – the very institution Germany helped build – is telling Berlin that it is suppressing speech, banning peaceful assembly, and misusing anti-discrimination law to silence criticism of a foreign government’s policies.
The distinction the report draws is important: criticizing the State of Israel is not the same as hating Jewish people. The IHRA definition, as applied by German authorities, collapses that distinction – turning political dissent into a form of bigotry by definition.
Germany’s Response
Berlin has pushed back, arguing that “antisemitic attitudes are significantly more prevalent among people of the Muslim faith” – a statement that shifts the conversation from state suppression of protest to the demographics of the protesters themselves.
Whether antisemitic attitudes exist among certain populations is a separate question from whether a government has the right to confiscate flags and ban rallies. The EU report addressed the latter. Germany responded by talking about the former.
The EU’s Own Contradictions
The EU’s criticism of Germany does not arrive without its own baggage. The same institutions calling for protest rights in Germany have sanctioned journalist Huseyin Dogru for his Israel-Palestine reporting and supported restrictions on Germany’s AfD political party – moves that raise their own free speech questions.
But the hypocrisy of the messenger does not invalidate the message. A European government is banning flags, confiscating protest signs, and deploying excessive force against people whose cause is the rights of Palestinians – and the continent’s own human rights body says it has gone too far.
When Germany bans a Russian protest sign, it calls it censorship. When China bans a Hong Kong flag, it calls it oppression. When Germany bans a Palestinian flag – what does it call that?
