A court decision green-lighting a pro-Palestinian protest camp at a site linked to the Holocaust has sparked a fierce backlash in Hamburg, Germany.

The protest, spearheaded by the group Bridges of Resistance, is being held at Moorweide, a location from which the Nazis deported around 6,000 Jews, Sinti, and Roma during World War II. The group claims the nine-day event aims to spotlight Hamburg’s alleged “complicity” in what it calls Israel’s “genocide,” pointing to the city’s arms exports to the Jewish state.

Hamburg authorities initially sought to relocate the protest, arguing that Moorweide’s somber history made it an unsuitable venue and warning of potential antisemitic incidents and clashes with counter-protesters. However, the Hamburg Administrative Court blocked the move, ruling that the constitutional right to free assembly protects the organizers’ choice of location and message, even if politically controversial.

The decision, upheld by a higher court, has infuriated local Jewish leaders, who view the protest’s placement as a “political and moral declaration of bankruptcy.” Hamburg’s Antisemitism Commissioner Stefan Hensel slammed the organizers’ choice of venue, while State Rabbi Shlomo Bistritzky expressed the community’s disappointment with the decision.

“Those who call for the killing of colonialists, glorify Hamas terror, and promote resistance by any means do not defend human rights,” the Israeli Embassy in Berlin declared, accusing the protest of promoting “extremist hate.”

Undeterred, Bridges of Resistance proceeded with the event, which featured posters, workshops, and exhibitions focusing on Germany’s supposed role in perpetuating the Israeli occupation and the displacement of Palestinians during the “Nakba” – Israel’s 1948 founding.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)