\n<\/p>\n
Berlin, Germany \u2013 <\/strong>A Berlin court ruled on Wednesday that authorities in Berlin who shut down a pro-Palestine conference soon after it began acted unlawfully.<\/p>\n Police on April 12, 2024, cracked down on the Palestine Congress, a forum of solidarity activists and human rights experts who were gathering to discuss Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza and Germany\u2019s alleged complicity, earning a wave of criticism from civil society groups.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThe dissolution and prohibition of the assembly were deemed disproportionate,\u201d the panel of judges of the Berlin Administrative Court ruled.<\/p>\n The defendant, the State of Berlin, had argued the police were right to act preemptively as they predicted criminal statements would be made at the conference, specifically incitement to hatred, dissemination of propaganda or use of symbols of unconstitutional and \u201cterrorist\u201d organisations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe police also found no evidence of any criminal offences related to public expression,\u201d the court ruling read.<\/p>\n The police justified their prediction in part on the basis that in a news conference held prior to the event, organisers allegedly did not distance themselves from the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n On the day in question, officers in riot gear descended in their hundreds on the venue usually used for wedding receptions and pulled the plug \u2013 cutting off the power to ensure that none of the planned speeches could be heard or broadcast via livestream.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not aware of any other instance where a conference was shut down without any crime having been committed,\u201d Michael Ploese, the lawyer representing the conference organisers, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n He said that German law only allowed restrictions on gatherings in private rooms where there was a high probability that a criminal act would be committed, and that the right to freedom of expression usually took precedence.<\/p>\n Judische Stimme (Jewish Voice) was among the groups organising the conference and filed the legal case.<\/p>\n It is a sister group of the US collective of the same name that organises Jewish peace activists who are critical of Israeli actions regarding Palestine.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw it as a success that we had even been able to begin it at all, but I wasn\u2019t expecting it all to end an hour later,\u201d said Wieland Hoban, the chair of Judische Stimme, who gave opening remarks at the conference.<\/p>\n Adding to the sense of repression, the British Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah, one of the main speakers, said officials at the airport in Berlin prevented him from continuing his journey and told him to return to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018I wasn\u2019t expecting it all to end an hour later\u2019<\/h2>\n