In October 2023, SoliDemoWatch was founded to take action against police repression during demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine in Cologne and Bonn. Back then in this part of Germany, there was a lack of strategies and structures for effectively taking action against police violence directed against Palestinian life. Inspired by already existing practices – for example of groups like Grunderechtekomitee or Copwatch – we developed a slightly different approach. Our aim was to build a committed structure of solidarity that supports demonstrations for ceasefire and a free Palestine.
Correspondingly, the practice of demonstration watch for solidarity is relatively new and is being constantly developed. We would like to share our gathered experiences and findings with the public. We all experience that the police feel restricted in their actions by our practice. We also experience that all protestors, including us, feel empowered on the streets. This knowledge can support local groups and their political activities and could inspire activists in other places to adopt this practice. We are convinced that by watching the police during demonstrations we can better understand how they operate, which strategies for exercising violence are used, and how to better protect each other against it. This can also help to systematize this knowledge further for the future.
Why a SoliDemoWatch?
Since the beginning of the bombardment of Gaza in October 2023, we can see expressions of solidarity with Palestine on the streets around the globe. In countless cities continuous protests emerged calling for a ceasefire, an end to the ongoing genocide, and ending the occupation of Palestine. Especially in the first days of October people gathered on the streets to collectively mourn and express their anger about the devastating situation in Gaza. This however, was publicly sanctioned in Germany. Right from the beginning it was clear that in Germany there should not be a public space for mourning the loss of Palestinian lives. Protest and grief for the people of Gaza and the West Bank have been discredited and criminalized.
Instead of solidarity, the Palestinian community faces the German state violence in all its force. Rallies and demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinian people are prohibited or seriously restricted. Protestors are arbitrarily beaten by the police and taken into custody. Videos of demonstrations show how the police trample with their feet on candles and flowers that have been set up with photos of people killed in Gaza. Furthermore, people who in the eyes of the police, look like Palestinians are indiscriminately policed in neighborhoods already marked as “problematic”. One further marker of the racist German politics of repression was the stigmatization of wearing a keffiyeh as being anti-Semitic. At schools in Berlin for example, wearing a keffiyeh was even temporarily prohibited.
Without any doubt, these political acts in Germany exhibit the racist motivation behind the punishment we can see on the streets: all forms of collective mourning of Palestinian life and support of the Palestinian struggle are criminalized. In Germany the space for demonstrating against the systematic destruction of life in Gaza is prohibited. The censorship of Palestinian resistance was not only promoted by state politics but demanded. With this only one expression should be possible in public space: unconditional solidarity with Israel. “In this moment there is only one stance for Germany. Standing behind the state of Israel. That is what we mean, when we say: the safety of Israel is Germany’s reason of state [Staatsräson]”, as the German chancellor Olaf Scholz stated in a government address. With these words the limits of thought and speech were drawn. From this moment on, every attempt to critically question the crimes of the Israeli army and showing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle had the consequence of being called a supporter of terror and/or an anti-Semite. In this way, “unconditional solidarity with Israel” became the only legitimate public opinion. October 7thbecame yet another means to criminalize the Palestinian community, who were already continuously repressed for appearing in public in Germany.
German media and state have since then intensively talked about an allegedly “imported anti-Semitism”, which according to their logic came to Germany with people racialized as Muslims. In this way they try to justify their violent acts against Palestinian communities in particular, and against people racialized as Muslims in general. With their racist discourse, the state and dominant culture act like they were not anti-Semitic. This discourse has also been adopted by some fractions of the left. This is connected to the history of the white left in Germany and itsfight against Nazism. There is a rupture in the left. A fraction of the German left thinks that they must defend the state of Israel at any cost because this is the only way of defending Jewish life. In this way, a part of the antifascists agrees with the logic of the German state described above and call every bit of solidarity with Palestine anti-Semitic or terrorist. Government, dominant culture and these fractions of the left can thereby avoid really taking responsibility for Jewish life in Germany. This “anti-anti-Semitism” is an instrumentalization of Jewish life for the purpose of racist politics. This is all happening in the context of the inhumane and murderous asylum politics of Europe (keyword “Reformation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS)”). The German government is using this to push laws for deporting people, to make deportations more violent and more frequent.
Coming into action
A newly formed alliance of abolitionist groups had the impulse to remind ourselves of some fundamental abolitionist principles and rebuild our structures to respond to the crisis of the left in Germany in the face of the so-called German reason of state. As Mariame Kaba says “Hope is a discipline.” We had the urgent need to react to the feeling of powerlessness against the limits set by the reason of state, and support the solidarity with Palestinians in face of their massive criminalization. The basic idea was to stand in solidarity with those affected by police brutality and protect the possibility of political action and expression in the public space for everyone. We do this by watching the very institution that implements the reason of state. We observe the police. The idea behind our practice is that the police will feel restricted in their possible enforce of violence because they are being watched by us. Instead of relying on the state for security, we look out for each other. We don’t trust the state and its security institutions. The many initiatives against right wing terror and violence teach us to take things in our own hands, i.e. everything. First and foremost this means that our work is built upon self-organized networks of solidarity that do not depend on third parties that could influence our work. We cannot trust that others will protect us, especially not the police. We hope that in the long run people are encouraged to look out for each other without the logic of punishment.
A glimpse into the practic
The concept of SoliDemoWatch is based on the work of Copwatch groups. These groups aim to disturb the routines of police activity by watching and documenting their violent acts. Additionally, the public gets informed of the fundamental violent nature of the police. SoliDemoWatch accompanies protests in solidarity with Palestine as well as protests where we can anticipate that a lot of police brutality will happen.
In agreement with the organizers, we participate as SoliDemoWatch in the demonstrations. We make ourselves recognizable by wearing labeled high visibility vests. We move around the protestors having the police forces in view. We follow the movements of the police from a few meters distance and take notes of any police measures. We focus our attention on situations where the police seem to prepare for direct intervention, like collecting their troops, taking on riot gear or announcing interventions.
When repressions occur like violent detentions and ID controls, we remain as close as possible next to those affected. We give them a phone number that they can call afterwards. We can provide phone numbers of lawyers who give advice in solidarity with the protestors and advise them in regards to what they can do in case of criminal charges. We try to document repression as detailed as necessary, so that protestors can use them for their defense in case of police violence and legal prosecution. We also gather information with the aim to make it accessible to the public.
Our observations
The above described general suspicion against Palestinians and all people who solidarize with them was visible in all demonstrations we’ve been to. Images from Berlin and the physical police violence against protests have been quite visible globally. In Cologne and Bonn we observed violence in the form of censorship above all. However, physical violence has been repeatedly present as well.
The criminalization starts with massive restrictions imposed by the police and is handed over to the organizers beforehand in a document. The restrictions themselves are already expressions of the reason of state and its racist violence. They include, e.g. the prohibition of slogans like “Stop the genocide”, “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free” or “Israel is illegal”. Other restrictions occur at will during the protest which were not mentioned in the announced restrictions. For example, signs that say “Google Nakba” were categorized as a criminal act. In the eyes of the police they amount to the criminal act of “rabble-rousing” which forms the basis for prosecuting them. In Bonn and Cologne protestors were prohibited to speak other languages than German. This was the case for slogans, signs, and speeches. Signs and banners have been indiscriminately confiscated, even before the demonstrations started, and never been given back just because they were seen as suspicious. Without exception, criminal charges have been raised in each one of the demonstrations we have been to.
The scale of chicane and repression is also evident by the massive number of police forces. Regularly there were more cops than protestors. The number of police cars at the demonstrations was around 10 to 40. The atmosphere of threat that is produced thereby is huge. Police forces from all over NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia, the federal state where Cologne and Bonn are located) are gathered at the demonstrations, including police dogs, machine guns and special forces for collecting evidence, and detention forces. Uninterrupted filming and the use of militarized equipment is the standard. At the end of the demonstrations we can also expect escalations started by the police and temporary detentions. As said, the accusation is nearly always “rabble-rousing”. People were violently thrown to the ground and pushed down by several police officers. People that chanted liberation songs from other regions of the world, containing phrases like “our rivers run free”, were brutally pulled out from the demonstration. Children, teenagers and elderly people are not spared by the police.
The perfidious thing is that the repression, like police work in general, legitimizes itself. On the one hand, extensive charges are filed in order to produce larger numbers of alleged “crimes” at demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, which in turn leads to even more police forces being mobilized and deployed at subsequent demonstrations. This again serves to further support the racist discourse, to reinforce the idea that people racialized as Muslims arefundamentally violent and that further indiscriminate controls beyond demonstrations are justified.
Where are the established structures of solidarity
At the demonstrations, there are few white established left structures and groups present. These very circles stir up hatred against Palestinians and groups standing in solidarity with them. Structures are outed and denunciated as supposedly anti-Semitic in newspaper articles and blogs. We observe that people understanding themselves as left cooperate with the police and give them self-made videos. These days, there are massive restrictions to the right to gather in public in Germany and an absurd amount of police violence that comes with the criminalization of protest. How is it possible that the principle “touch one, touch all” - meaning solidarity with all whom are affected by state repression - does not apply to Palestinians?
We stand by the conviction that nobody is free until we all are free. Especially in this time we keep reminding ourselves of this principle again and again and to not participate in separationist discourses. Instead, we want to be able to endure more, to approach each other, listen to each other and really come together on the streets and in our kitchens. Only in this way we can drive forward change. For us, SoliDemoWatch is exactly this, a reaction to the growing separations which leaves people powerless and without utopias. It is a way to get into practice and to act in solidarity on the streets. It also shows us that structures like SoliDemoWatch can support people affected by police brutality, how disrupting normalized policing and coming together can result in stronger forms of resistance.
It just needs high visibility vests, a notebook, pencil and a card with a phone number people can call and ask for support. SoliDemoWatch is possible everywhere.
