Czech Republic: Prague City Hall Bans Pro-Palestine Demonstration Over Anti-Israel Slogan
The Prague municipality has banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration because its aim was to support the anti-Israel slogan "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free".
The Prague City Hall reminded that this slogan refers to the location of the state of Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and has long been used by extremists and terrorists calling for the destruction of Israel.
"And it is the question of territorial and personal sovereignty over this space that is the essence of this slogan. Although the organiser states in the purpose of the demonstration that it is to support the slogan in its "non-violent original form for equality, freedom and justice for all people living from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea", in the long run, the large-scale slogan appears mainly in organisations and movements that have called for the complete destruction of the state of Israel. The meaning of the slogan is perceived not only as an unequivocal demand for the end of Jewish sovereignty in the region, but also as a complete cessation of Jewish ethnic presence in the region as a whole," the Czech capital's municipality said in a statement on 30 November.
The demonstration in Prague was to take place on Tuesday, 5 December, in front of the Czech Ministry of the Interior.
In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, the subsequent Israeli retaliation, and especially the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the slogan has been addressed by authorities across Europe.
Since last week, the slogan as a symbol of terrorism has been punishable in the federal state of Bavaria. In the Netherlands, however, the Court of Appeal ruled that the use of the slogan is not a crime and is not an expression of anti-Semitism.
Today, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) announced that on the morning of 1 December, it resumed hostilities against Hamas, as the terrorist group violated the ceasefire and began firing.
The Israeli army added that after the first report of an air raid and the sounding of sirens in Kibbutz Holit, several rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel.
According to protocol, these launches were not intercepted.
The Israeli Defence Forces also recalled that the Hamas terrorist organisation uses the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields, placing its command posts and military infrastructure in residential areas, hospitals, mosques and schools. Hamas terrorists turn civilian objects into military targets, using civilians and civilian objects as human shields.