Greta Thunberg takes part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations – she was in Berlin on the anniversary of the Hamas massacre. A politician wants to prevent this from happening in the future.
The domestic policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Alexander Throm, is calling for an entry ban for the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. “Anyone who comes here to agitate against Israel and denigrate our police has no place in Germany,” the CDU politician told the “Bild” newspaper. “I think it is not only appropriate, but even necessary, for the Federal Minister of the Interior to issue an entry ban against this anti-Semite in the future.”
Thunberg was at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin on Monday, the anniversary of the Hamas massacre in Israel, where, according to police, participants also threw bottles at police officers and chanted anti-Israel slogans. In a video shared on her Instagram account, Thunberg criticized the German police’s actions during the pro-Palestinian protests. She also repeated her accusation of genocide against Israel and said that the German state was complicit in it.
Thunberg became known worldwide through her “school strike for the climate”. The international climate movement Fridays for Future emerged from their protest. Since the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel a year ago and Israel’s subsequent military action in the Gaza Strip, it has repeatedly expressed solidarity with the Palestinians and accused Israel of genocide.
Critics accuse the Swede of being one-sided. The federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, called Thunberg’s statements on the Middle East conflict last year “anti-Israel and also anti-Semitic due to the hidden denial of Israel’s right to exist.”
In Dortmund, police shut down a pro-Palestinian protest camp on Tuesday after Thunberg announced a visit there. The decision was made because she was classified as violent and because of her appearance more people than originally allowed would probably have come to the protest camp, the police said.
Throm said Thunberg was abusing the prominence she had acquired for climate protection. “That’s why I also call on Fridays for Future to expressly distance themselves from Thunberg. If they don’t do this, in my opinion they have lost all credibility in the democratic debate.”
The German activists from Fridays for Future had already distanced themselves from her last year because of Thunberg’s clear partisanship in the Gaza war. Fridays for Future in Germany operates as an independent organization and has “long since outgrown Greta as a person.” There is no place for anti-Semitism in the movement.