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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Deborah Cole in Berlin

German court convicts activist for leading ‘from the river to the sea’ chant

German police and pro-Palestinian protesters
The female defendant was convicted of ‘condoning the assault by Hamas’ by using the slogan ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ during a protest. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A Berlin court has convicted a pro-Palestinian activist of condoning a crime for leading a chant of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally in the German capital four days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, in what her defence team called a defeat for free speech.

The presiding judge, Birgit Balzer, ordered 22-year-old German-Iranian national Ava Moayeri to pay a €600 (£515) fine on Tuesday, rejecting her argument that she meant only to express support for “peace and justice” in the Middle East by calling out the phrase on a busy street.

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