Berlin, July 11th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – A coalition of pro-Palestinian groups is planning to hold a demonstration at Frankfurt’s Opernplatz on July 18th, and the announcement has triggered swift pushback from city and state officials.
The rally, organized by the group “freepalestine_ffm” together with several allied organizations, carries the slogan “Palestine has the right to defend itself, even with stones and rifles — resistance is international law”.
As The Berlin Spectator’s Imanuel Marcus reported for the “Jüdische Allgemeine” weekly, Hesse’s Antisemitism Commissioner Uwe Becker has called for the demonstration to be banned outright. In his view, the announcement itself amounts to a glorification of the Hamas massacre of October 7th, 2023, in which 1,200 people were murdered, 251 were abducted, and many were raped.
Frankfurt’s Green Party has taken a similarly hard line, arguing that the organizers have crossed a clear boundary. Katharina Knacker and Dimitrios Bakakis, the two co-chairs of the Greens’ faction in the city parliament, said the slogan is not a legitimate expression of criticism directed at Israeli government policy.
Rather, they argued, it promotes armed violence and legitimizes the use of weapons as a tool of political conflict, adding that anyone in Germany calling for “rifles” is glorifying violence and fueling further escalation of the Middle East conflict. The Greens have likewise demanded that the event be prohibited.
A Call for “Rifles” Paired With Talk of International Law
Notably, the same organizers calling for weapons to be used against Israel are simultaneously demanding respect for human rights, justice, and international law. Their announcement invites supporters to attend “in large numbers — whether from Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, or any other city.”
Becker did not mince words in his response, stating that anyone who celebrates the October 7th, 2023 Hamas massacre as “a successful act of resistance”, and now calls for a demonstration in Frankfurt in support of resistance “with stones and rifles,” is backing the murder of Jews and Hamas terrorism. According to “Jüdische Allgemeine”, he said Frankfurt must use every legal means available to stop the planned demonstration from going ahead.
Authorities Weighing Their Options
As the “Frankfurter Rundschau” daily reports, city authorities are currently in talks with the domestic intelligence service (Staatsschutz), the public prosecutor’s office, and the state police to determine how to proceed.
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Meanwhile, a counter-demonstration has been organized by the youth wing of the German-Israeli Society (DIG) in Frankfurt, working together with the groups Our Fight Frankfurt and Iron Dome Frankfurt. In a statement posted on its website, the DIG youth forum noted the timing was particularly charged. According to the group, it falls on Christopher Street Day, a date on which Frankfurt traditionally stands for freedom, equality, self-determination, and the protection of minorities — values the organizers argue anti-Israel groups are now attempting to hijack for their own demonstration.
The counter-demonstration, billed as a rally for democracy and against antisemitism, is scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m. on July 18th at Frankfurt’s Opernplatz square. Organizers say it will be followed by a march intended to stay within sight and earshot of the anti-Israel demonstration.
The DIG youth forum stated that anyone chanting slogans about “stones and rifles” was not celebrating peace of any kind, and that attacking Israel’s sovereignty did not align someone with liberation, but rather with antisemitism and violence.
