Denying “Israel’s right to exist” may cost you five years in prison in Germany

Last week, Germany’s upper house of parliament (Bundesrat) gave a green light to a law that sees the denial of “Israel’s right to exist” as a criminal offense that could cost “culprits” up to five years in prison.

Back in April, the Christian Democrat (CDU) Justice Minister and State Prime Minister of the central German state of Hesse made the proposed law public, stating that a rise in alleged antisemitism since October 2023 must be fought against and that it is: “unbearable that slogans are being shouted—slogans we never thought would be heard on German streets again.”

The statement being referred to is most likely “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, a slogan that the German state has criminalized since November 2023, stating that it is Hamas propaganda.

The law regarding Israel’s so-called “right to exist”, as well as the criminalization of the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” are obvious signs of attempts to squash the anti-genocide movement, which has since October 2023 affirmed that Germany is complicit in the Gaza genocide militarily, ideologically and politically. In order to distract from the fact that Germany is Israel’s second-largest weapons deliverer, German ruling-class politicians utilize the smoke screen of antisemitism allegations.

Germany is not merely a key arms supplier to Israel. Between 2023 and 2025, Germany imported Israeli weapon systems worth 6.7 billion euros. By procuring the Israeli “Iron Dome” air defense system (Arrow), Germany aims to enhance its own war-fighting capabilities. Through these purchases, Germany not only sustains Israel’s war economy but also, in the process, finances the largest arms export deal in Israel’s history.

If the proposed law also passes in Germany’s lower house of parliament (Bundestag), it would be another death blow to freedom of speech in Germany. Hence, people speaking at an event, protest, article, or even posting on social media, arguing for a one-state solution, meaning the dissolution of the Israeli ethno-nationalistic state, would see up to five years of prison.

Even an Instagram story about Palestine has led German authorities to strip the German citizenship from a Palestinian man, Abdullah A., this year. It is the first time since the Nazi dictatorship that Germany is revoking citizenship. Such draconian measures serve to divide, placate, and create a passive population.

That the settler-colonial zionist state that is committing genocide should no longer exist and that Palestine be decolonized in all of historic Palestine is not only a just demand but also a necessary one. All bourgeois states have no right to exist. That Palestinian life is being exterminated, genocided with German weapons, does not find mention in the proposed law. As Palestinians’ or Palestine’s right to exist is deemed irrelevant. But the German law also does not care about Jewish life. The German domestic intelligence service surveils the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Just Peace as an extremist group. For years, anti-Zionist Jews, who call for a free Palestine from the river to the sea, have made abundantly clear that the German state, once again, only sees Jews who follow Germany’s Staatsräson (reason of State, and unconditional support for Zionist settler-colonialism), as worthy Jewish life. While those who are anti-Zionists are relegated as “Self-hating Jews, Terrorists and Extremists.” While Berlin police beat up Palestinians, migrants, and anti-Zionist Jews, the police department has claimed that attacks on them are antisemitic as they are upholding the German Staatsräson.

The Orwellian turn of events should not let us get blindsided. The German state has hardcore Imperialist interests in its endeavors in the Middle East. Israel serves as the watchdog for Western imperialism, and Western states are willing to lose legitimacy in the eyes of their own populations through authoritarian measures in order to uphold these interests. For a year, over 80% of the population in Germany has rejected Israel’s actions in Gaza. It is the duty of Socialists in Germany to connect the struggle for a free Palestine to the struggle against militarization, against budget cuts, and against the far-right. These struggles are intrinsically intertwined. Although the repressions have been on a steady uphill road, defeat is not an option. Through broad alliances, we can set a halt to the status quo.