The German organisation Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (JV) may, for the time being, continue to be classified as “extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence service. This was decided by a court in Cologne last Wednesday.
The organisation describes itself as anti-Zionist and is among the most prominent Jewish voices in Germany advocating for Palestinian rights. It characterises what has been taking place in Palestine for more than 100 years as settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. Its members appear publicly at demonstrations and as speakers, and support initiatives such as the global BDS movement and the German “Kufiyas in Buchenwald” campaign.
While JV has faced a mixture of systematic ignorance and defamation as “self-hating Jews” from the German mainstream media, it has increasingly come under scrutiny from the authorities amid the intensification of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany since October 2023. Prominent members such as Iris Hefets and Udi Raz, for example, have repeatedly been arrested by police in Berlin during protest actions. In 2024, Jewish Voice was labelled “extremist” for the first time in the so-called “Verfassungsschutzbericht”, an annual publication issued by the domestic intelligence service. As in the case of the Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun and the group “Palästina Solidarität Duisburg” (Palestine Solidarity Duisburg, PSDU), which were banned by decree of the Interior Ministry in November 2023 and May 2024 respectively, the authorities accuse JV of violating the principle of “international understanding” (an extremely vague concept drawn from the German constitution) and of spreading “anti-Israeli propaganda”. Unlike in the cases of Samidoun and PSDU, however, the issue with Jewish Voice is not an outright ban on the organisation — at least not yet — though its classification as “extremist” could pave the way for exactly that. In the immediate term, the registered association’s charitable status is also under threat.
JV therefore filed lawsuits both against this classification and against its inclusion in the 2024 “Verfassungsschutzbericht”. In the latter case, it secured an initial victory at the end of April: a Berlin court ruled that its inclusion in the intelligence service’s public report was impermissible, since the evidence presented was insufficient to substantiate the accusation of “extremism”. The Cologne court has now ruled in precisely the opposite direction. The judges there followed the authorities’ argument so far as to portray statements by JV members questioning the framing of the 7th October uprising as an “antisemitic terrorist attack” as effectively amounting to support for Hamas. The ruling states: “The Court sees sufficiently substantiated indications that the applicant continuously agitates against the State of Israel and thereby indirectly contributes to the Hamas activities that violate the principle of international understanding.” This allegation strongly recalls a term coined specifically for the PSDU ban, namely that PSDU had “mentally supported” (“geistig unterstützt”) Hamas.
Wieland Hoban of JV commented that the Cologne ruling “says something about the arbitrariness and contradictions of the so-called “Staatsräson”, where Instagram posts are stylised into acts of support for armed resistance — as though we were directing Hamas. Unfortunately, it also shows very clearly that even legal victories are no proof of a properly functioning constitutional state.” He observed that the far-right AfD party has by now become “more respectable” than Jewish Voice.
Indeed, the situation remains contradictory: Germany’s domestic intelligence service is currently permitted to classify Jewish Voice as “extremist”, but for the time being is not allowed to list it as such in the 2024 “Verfassungsschutzbericht”. Since both cases are interim proceedings, the final rulings are still pending. In addition, the 2025 constitutional protection report is expected in June. In light of the Cologne ruling, it must be assumed that Jewish Voice will once again be included in it.
Are german people like okay with this? why don’t they do anything
They don’t know and they don’t care to know. Most Germans take no interest in anything happening outside of their immediate lives in their job, their family and their town. And the few that do take an interest are split between those who buy everything the mainstream media tells them, and those who are resigned to the fact that this is just how things are and they can’t do anything about it. They certainly wouldn’t dream of breaking any rules. Almost all of them are convinced they live in a free democratic society where the state and police are good actors who protect society, where only the right wing conspiracy theorists distrust the media, and where the best you can do is just keep your head down and work hard and everything will turn out alright. Because after all, we are civilized Europeans, not like those undemocratic barbarians outside of Europe.
true on the last point, so much of the european mindset is “well at least we’re not like those guys” whether its tutting at Americans for Trump, or discrediting Chinese achievements because they’re “authoritarian”
There is a disgusting superiority complex in Europe that is shared practically across the spectrum, from the socdem left, to neoliberal centrists to the far right. We look down on the US and feel culturally superior to Americans and think ourselves so much more civilized because we have a few more social safety nets, meanwhile we are literally bowing down to the US and giving them absolutely everything, we let them destroy our energy supply and make us dependent on them, we agreed to horribly unequal trade deals, our industries are leaving and going to the US (or China), we jump on the bandwagon of every US war, we antagonize China to please Washington, and we are practically begging them to continue militarily occupying us because we are so scared of the “big bad Russians”.
We have much the same here in Sweden - do you think there is any ground to take considering the state of our societies? I find myself just contemplating moving out of here, which is a bit defeatist of course but it is tiring to permanently fight against the broader conscious of your country. Every news segment, every headline, every opinion article is just constant and constant ill disguised fascism, chauvinism, amerikkka-simping or something else.
I don’t think i can tell you what the right thing is for you. But speaking generally, in terms of communists as a whole, i think we have to continue to do our best and try. As material conditions deteriorate (and they definitely will) more people will be forced to start opening their eyes and realize they’ve been fooled. Communists have to be there to provide an alternative path forward or else we just surrender the ground to the fascists without even fighting for it.
I admit i’ve also contemplated what it would be like if i just moved to another country. As an immigrant who still has some ties to my former home country i probably could (not that it would help since that country is just as captured politically by the NATO-EU Fourth Reich, and even more likely to be on the frontline of a European-Russian war). Other options also exist, but the immigration process would be much harder. But ultimately that just doesn’t sit right with me. It feels like running away.
All successful revolutionaries kept struggling even when things looked hopeless. We can only succeed if we keep trying. I am resigned to the very likely possibility that i might end up deported (or worse) at some point, whether or not the AfD take power, because the “liberal” establishment is already becoming increasingly repressive toward any and all dissent, branding us “Russian collaborators”, “anti-semites”, “extremists”, “terrorists”, etc.
And even though i might face less repression elsewhere, the truth is that there is much less that you can do “in exile” to affect the politics of a country you no longer live in than if you were actually present there. It might not feel like it but you have more power from within the belly of the beast. I might be forced into that position one day, and if it comes to that then so be it. But until then i will keep trying to organize with the few comrades i do have around me. That’s better than giving up.
Apathetic citizenry is not just a German phenomenon. Feets in the streets should be a daily norm across the west, but corporate media and corporate owned union leadership conspire with governments to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Yeah but even for western standards Germany is almost uniquely apathetic. You don’t ever see the kinds of protests here that you see in France for example. I don’t know, maybe Britain is even worse than Germany in this regard, but i get the feeling that the deterioration of conditions being already more advanced there makes it so at least there is some potential over there for the status quo to be shaken up. Or maybe i’m just having a “grass is greener on the other side” kind of bias.