Germany: Dozens injured at Berlin pro-Palestinian protest

Several protesters and police officers sustained injuries during violent confrontations at a pro-Palestinian demonstration marking Nakba Day in Berlin on Thursday.

According to police, who made over 50 arrests, approximately 1,100 people took part in the demonstration in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg in remembrance of the Nakba and protesting against Israel's continuing military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Nakba means "catastrophe" in Arabic and refers to the forced displacement or fleeing of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 after Israel's founding. About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the years before and after the proclamation of the State of Israel.

Some 1,200 Israelis — around 800 civilians — were killed and another 250 abducted in the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel's military response has seen over 53,000 Palestinians — mainly women and children — killed, according to health authorities in Hamas-led Gaza Strip, whose casualty counts do not differentiate between militants and civilians but are regarded as reliable by international organizations, and much of the territory laid to waste.

How did the Nakba Day protest unfold?

In Berlin on Thursday, demonstrators originally wanted to march from the Südstern square in the south of the capital to the neighboring district of Neukölln, but a local administrative court ruled that the protest must remain stationary.

"The Nakba is a continuing campaign of ethnic cleansing which has never stopped," claimed one speaker at the demonstration. Other protesters reportedly shouted phrases accusing the Israeli government and military of being "child murderers, women murderers, baby murderers" as well as "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

Many scholars and activists for Palestinian rights describe the latter phrase as a call for peace, equality and justice in support for the Palestinian national cause.

Others interpret it as a call for the destruction of Israel, arguing a Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean leaves no space for the state of Israel.

The German Interior Ministry in November 2023 criminalized the use of the slogan in Germany. It considers it a "trademark" of Hamas (which uses a version of the wording in its revised charter in 2017) and considers it a call for violence against Jews and against the state of Israel. The precise legal situation though remains unclear.

Police officer 'trampled on'

According to the TAZ daily newspaper, the use of this phrase prompted attempts by police to make arrests. Police said they were also responding to "significant acts of violence" against officers "from within the crowd," out of which bottles and stones were reportedly thrown.

According to the police, one officer was dragged into the crowd, forced to the ground and trampled on. The 36-year-old reportedly suffered severe injuries to his upper body, including a broken arm, and remains in the hospital.

"The attack on a police officer at the demonstration in Kreuzberg is nothing but a cowardly, brutal act of violence," said Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). "Attacks against officers are attacks on law and order  and therefore against all of us."

According to the police, 11 officers were injured in total as well as an unspecified number of protesters. The injured demonstrators were treated by the Berlin fire department, which said the scale of its deployment wasn't particularly large.

Berlin politicians condemn 'brutal violence'

Berlin's senator for the interior, Iris Spranger of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), promised tough action against those arrested.

"Yesterday's demonstration in Berlin escalated in a horrific manner," she said." This brutal violence against officers has nothing to do with political protest."

The German-Israeli Society (DIG) spoke of a "strong radicalization in this area and an associated increase in violence," and called for the authorization of such demonstrations to be reconsidered.

"Often, these events are not demonstrations for the rights and the legitimate concerns of Palestinians but merely express outright hatred of Israel," it claimed.

Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah

Editor's note: The short explanation of the slogan "From the River to the Sea" in the article has been corrected. 

This article was published on May 16th 2025 based on news agencies and German media reports. In the meantime, new footage of the incident analyzed by a human rights NGO casts serious doubt on the account of the Berlin police of what happened that day. DW therefore published a new report about "What really happened at Berlin's Nakba Protest this year?"  You can watch the video here.