May 1st in Berlin: The ex-terrorist is learn out as a message of greeting, the group claps | EUROtoday

In the late afternoon, the sq. on the Südstern subway station in Berlin-Kreuzberg fills. Police officers stand on roofs, scan the group. The location is tense. Banner are pulled up, faces are masked. By faring, journalists are insulted as “capitalist pigs”. A bunch of younger males ignites the primary pyrotechnics. At the highest of the prepare: a bodily disabled man, a properly -known determine of the propalestinian scene in Berlin. Again and once more it echoes: “Free, Free Palestine!”

The FDP politician Karoline Preisler can also be on site-as nearly at all times with propalestinian demonstrations. It is dedicated to the Israeli-hatred of Israel and the discharge of Israelis deported by Hamas terrorists-six law enforcement officials defend them whereas being concerned in discussions.

In the group: posters with anti-Semitic slogans, banner of the anti-Israeli sanction alliance BDS, the Palestinian group Samidoun, of communist youth associations. In the loudspeaker block, it’s chanted: “Freedom for all political prisoners.” It stays to be seen whether or not the hostages captured by Hamas are meant. Pro-Israeli demonstrators are on a aspect street-also below police safety.

Even earlier than step one of the so-called revolutionary May demonstration, a greeting from the previous RAF terrorist Daniela Klette was learn out. This is speaking about “genocide of Palestinians”, German complicity, capitalism and revolution. It seems to be like an echo from a previous time. The applause is lengthy

At the identical time, a second, visible stage runs. Selfies come up throughout all the demonstration, it’s posed earlier than banners, materials for social media is collected. There is the lady with a scarf who mimics the revolutionary in entrance of a police automobile. There are the younger males who rapidly look into the digicam in entrance of the black block. May 1st turns into a photograph backdrop for a lot of.

At the highest of the elevator: the affiliation “Migrantifa”. Behind her, a bunch of the Left Party marches with Palestinian flags and posters that say: “Stop the Genocide”. The member of the Bundestag Ferat Kocak (left) leads them. He wears a warning vest that characterizes him as a “parliamentary observer”.

As in 2024, propalestinic slogans primarily dominate the image. On posters: “No weapons for Israel”, audio system are repeatedly voted – “From the River to the Sea”. In a number of instances, the police are coming into over anti -Semitic statements. The emotionalization by the Middle East battle is noticeable-not least on Sonnenallee, the place protest and on a regular basis life merges unusually. Men name slogans like “Free, Free Palestine” on the sting, the group chants.

It just isn’t the one slogans by which a perpetrator-victim reversal is carried out. On a big banner it says: “Anti -fascism means: Fight of NATO. Stops the war against Russia” – fairly as if Russia had not attacked Ukraine, however vice versa.

From a balcony, just a little boy holds up a leaf with the phrases “Free Palestine”. The crowd cheered him. A person with a pink banner (“Dolls & Fags against Genocide”) fires the group: “There is only one solution.” The demonstrating calls: “Intifada! Revolution!” And once more: “From the River to the Sea – Palestine wants be free.”

In the aspect streets of Neukölln, law enforcement officials repeatedly safe the entrances. When the prepare passes, it calls: “All of Berlin hates the police.” It stays quiet at first – till a full water bottle flies close to the Neukölln Arcaden and a policewoman hits the top. The temper threatens to tip over.

A speaker of the communist youth affiliation roars into the microphone: “As a servant of this state, you are our enemies. You are what is between us and the socialist revolution.” The crowd cheers. A number of streets additional, on the balconies within the bourgeois a part of Neukölln, the struggle day turns into a backyard get together. While class -fighting rhetoric echoes by the streets, there are sausages, beer, selfies. Nod in time.

In the meantime, the highest of the prepare in the direction of the south star returns. Police a whole bunch are prepared. It is a couple of minutes by which the temper may tip over. Suddenly there’s police in every single place. The officers placed on their helmets. There are first wrangling.

In a home entrance, a arrested by law enforcement officials is shielded, surrounded by an indignant crowd. “Shame on you”, screams from all sides. What precisely occurred stays unclear. Loudspeaker bulletins for the dissolution of the meeting don’t fail. Similar scenes and once more: A younger man screams an official, apparently for no motive – the official decides in opposition to a arrest and strikes on.

And then there’s Shane O’Brien. The pali material pulled deep into the face, he dances in entrance of a music bus. The man who was concerned within the occupation of an auditorium at FU Berlin may quickly lose his proper to remain. But immediately he dances as if all the pieces is okay.

The police counted between 15,000 and 18,000 members within the night, the organizers converse of as much as 30,000. One factor is especially seen: the left -wing autonomous block, which formed the image in earlier years, can hardly be seen. Larger riots additionally fail. The police converse of particular person incidents.

This repeats an image from final yr. They are scenes which can be extra paying homage to a road competition than the historically confrontational May 1st demonstration in Kreuzberg. Those who transfer by the neighborhood immediately hardly meet the spirits of the previous.

Almost 4 many years in the past, in May 1987, Kreuzberg grew to become the fight zone for the primary time. Stones flew, Molotowcocktails burned, law enforcement officials needed to duck on the subway line. The steadiness sheet: dozens of accidents, looting, burning vehicles – and the picture of a burned -out grocery store that grew to become a logo nationwide.

In the next years, the riots institutionalized. The so-called “revolutionary May 1st demo” grew to become an integral a part of the left scene. In 1989 the scenario escalated once more: over 340 injured civil servants, hundreds of thousands of hundreds of thousands. The Senate had placed on de -escalation – and had failed. In the Nineties the counter-strike: martial police power, brawls, arrests, destroyed pubs. Violence on each side. In 2010, nearly 480 individuals had been detained by the police after the riots on the evening of May 2. The statistics converse for itself.

The image started to alter on the flip of the millennium. The then Kreuzberger Halis Sönmez had the thought for the “Myfest” – a road competition with music, tradition and neighborhood. A ritual grew to become a feast from the ritual. The revolution gave solution to the Caipirinha, the burning barricades of the stage. May 1st might be pacified with the competition and a complicated police tactic.

But even with out a competition, it remained largely quiet this yr. In the night, bottles flew, pyrotechnics had been ignited. There had been particular person arrests. Shortly after 10 p.m. it’s quiet on the Südstern. No music, no shouting – simply shards, bottles, emergency vehicles. What began with the transfigured greeting ends in silence.