Courts of Hessen, Germany confirm that pro-Palestine demonstration may take place today in Frankfurt (Oct. 7, 2024)

The demonstration "For a free Palestine - justice will prevail" may take place in Frankfurt on October 7, 2024, despite attempts of the City of Frankfurt to prevent it. This has been decided by the State Administrative Court of Hessen (Hessischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof) today, confirming the respective decision of the Frankfurt Administrative Court (5 L 3492/24.F).

According to the Frankfurt Administrative Court the City of Frankfurt is misjudging the constitutional right of freedom of assembly and expression: 

A prohibition of the demonstration cannot be based on its date - October 7, 2024 - alone, since the law regulating demonstrations in Hessen explicitly states that only historic dates unequivocally relating to the National Socialist Tyranny may play a role for such prohibition what is not the case here.

Furthermore, so the court, while the alleged controversial, anti-Israel and even antisemitic statements by the applicant and justifications of the islamistic attack on Israel of Oktober 7, 2023, ignoring the suffering of the victims in Israel, could be considered as malicious and provocative, the City of Frankfurt failed to show that those statements are in any way of criminal relevance.

According to the court the City of Frankfurt also failed to show that the planned demonstration constituted any kind of danger: The City of Frankfurt cannot be permitted to replace its failure to provide evidence for an imminent danger by merely political considerations since the administration is restricted to the rule of law according to Article 20 paragraph 3 of the German constitution (Grundgesetz).

The above is in line with a number of previous decisions of the courts of Hessen giving supporters of Palestine equal weight to those of Israel. It also has to be seen in the context of the recent landmark decisions of the International Court of Justice declaring the Israeli occupation of Palestine illegal and qualifying Israel's attacks on Gaza since October 2023 as plausible genocide. To ignore these facts can be considered "provocative and malicious" as well.