At least 12,000 join pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin

Around 12,000 people joined the rally in the centre of the German capital condemning Israel’s offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory, 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 had announced a partial arms embargo in August, saying that his country would halt the export of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip.

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 commits “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.

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But Berlin has grown increasingly critical of the Israeli campaign 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 Gaza war erupted in October 2023 — triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,756 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers those figures to be reliable.