Several hundred people in Berlin took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Kreuzberg district on Monday, the anniversary of the deadly attack on Israel led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Police said some in the crowd threw bottles at officers, adding that several arrests had been made.
The demonstrators gathered in the late afternoon and chanted, with many wearing Palestinian scarves and waving Palestinian flags as they joined in chants of “Viva, viva Palestine.”
Police estimated the crowd at about 400 people. A man with a megaphone cheered the demonstrators: “Yalla yalla Intifada,” “Stop the mass murder” and “Israel is a terrorist state.”
The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was also heard several times. In Germany, the staunchly pro-Israel government has argued that the phrase is a Hamas slogan, which could mean its use is illegal under German law.
The expression refers to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. According to the German Interior Ministry, Hamas uses the phrase to mean that the current state of Israel should be eliminated.
