Some 2,000 protesters gathered in Hamburg to decry Israeli “genocide” in Gaza and Lebanon, according to local media
The crisis in the Middle East should be resolved by establishing a caliphate in the region, the leader of a German radical Islamist organization has said during a rally.
Around 2,000 supporters of the controversial group, Muslim Interaktiv, took to the streets in the city of Hamburg in northern Germany on Saturday, local media reported. The organizers claimed in a post on X that more than 5,000 people turned out.
The demonstrators chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater) and carried banners decrying what they described as Israeli “genocide” in Gaza and Lebanon and urging the establishment of a caliphate – an Islamic state – across the Middle East.
The group’s leader Joe Adade Boateng, also known as Raheem Boateng, said on stage that the Israeli government “publicly announces its plans for destruction, attacks hospitals and schools, hides thousands of explosive devices in equipment and lets them explode regardless of losses. The whole world sees what is happening in Gaza and now in Lebanon.”
He was referring to a wave of explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies, and other devices in Lebanon in mid-September, which Western media said was the result of an Israeli intelligence operation targeting the armed group Hezbollah. The attack preceded the launch of an air campaign and ground operation in Lebanon by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in which at least 1,645 people have already been killed, according to the local authorities.
The latest data from Gaza’s Health Ministry suggests that at least 42,175 people have been killed and 98,336 others wounded in the military campaign launched by Israel in the Palestinian enclave in response to an attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The rally in Hamburg took place amid heavy police presence, with a water cannon being kept on standby. However, no incidents were reported. The tabloid Bild said that the demonstration had been scheduled to last three hours, but the crowd dispersed after only 40 minutes.
Muslim Interaktiv made headlines after a rally in April during which its supporters labeled Germany “a dictatorship of values” and insisted that a caliphate was the “solution” for the country. German law enforcement agencies believe the group to be affiliated with the Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT), an international radical Islamist organization that remains banned in Germany in 2003 for promoting violence and the killing of Jews.
When asked by Bild why a group like Muslim Interaktiv was granted permission to protest in Hamburg, a police spokesman said that “freedom of assembly… is a cornerstone of our democracy.” However, the spokesman stressed that the participants were banned from doing certain things, including glorifying attacks on Israel, burning Israeli flags, and calling for a caliphate in Germany.