Germany: Free speech wins in court, arms deliveries stay untouchable

It seems that barely a week goes by without Germany’s anti-Palestinian repression being condemned – whether by international institutions and media or by German courts. In mid-October, UN experts criticised what they called the “apparent suppression of Palestine solidarity activism by Germany“. Shortly afterwards, international media reported that Germany had allegedly lied before the International Court of Justice in the case concerning its complicity in the Gaza genocide. And last week, reports that Germany was now taking in donkeys from Gaza while still denying entry to wounded and sick children sparked global outrage.

On 18 November, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) condemned the German government’s decision to once again supply weapons to Israel. Last Monday, Amnesty International (AI) joined the criticism. Erika Guevara-Rosas, AI’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, called the 17 November decision “reckless” and “unlawful.” By approving further arms transfers, Berlin was signalling to Israel “that it can continue committing genocide, war crimes, and apartheid against Palestinians and unlawfully occupy the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza without fear of consequence.”

A limited protection of free speech

Last Friday, the highest administrative court in Germany’s most populous federal state ruled that denying Israel’s so-called “right to exist” falls under protected free expression and cannot simply be banned through a police order as it is usual at demonstrations in Germany.

And on Wednesday, another court found that the shutdown of the Palestine Congress in Berlin in April 2024 had been unlawful. The event had been smeared in advance, prominent foreign speakers were denied entry and given bans on political activity, and the police violently broke up the congress just minutes after it began. Two courts had already ruled that both the Schengen entry ban and the activity ban issued by German authorities against Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah had been unlawful.

So is the situation not as bad as it seems? Has Germany’s rule of law been restored, with the judiciary finally putting limits on an out-of-control executive? Hardly. As the congress organisers rightly noted, this pattern is “systemic”: “First, Palestinian solidarity is banned, and a year and a half later the courts decide the repression was unlawful.”

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An absolute shield for arms exports

The organisers added: “These court decisions come after more than 100,000 people in Gaza have already been killed by German weapons.” A study released this week by Germany’s Max Planck Institute made clear “that the current violent death toll” of the Gaza genocide “likely exceeds 100,000.”

German courts have repeatedly dismissed lawsuits seeking to halt Germany’s arms deliveries to Israel, which increased tenfold overnight after 7 October 2023. By mid-May 2025, Berlin had supplied nearly half a billion euros worth of military equipment to Tel Aviv. Most recently, on 12 November, two lawsuits were rejected by a Berlin court. The cases were brought by the ECCHR and initially five, later four, Palestinians – one of whom had since been killed in Israel’s genocide. The court argued, among other things, that there was “no risk of repetition.” Just five days later, the German government announced that it would again supply weapons to the Zionist state.

In July, Germany’s Constitutional Court rejected a lawsuit filed by several Yemeni plaintiffs who had lost relatives in a 2012 U.S. drone strike on their village. Supported by the ECCHR, they sued Germany because U.S. drone warfare in Africa and the Middle East is coordinated through the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein. The German court dismissed the case, insisting it saw no “systematic violations of international law” in Washington’s conduct.

Taken together, these rulings suggest that while German courts may object to the sweeping restrictions on free expression currently seen in the country, they remain determined to protect billion-euro deals and strategic partnerships. In other words: protesting against genocide and drone terror is permitted – stopping them is not.

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