"Terrorism propaganda against Israel" - hype about seminar in Stuttgart

A performance by the Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib planned for Saturday in Stuttgart has drawn criticism. Khatib is suspected of being associated with the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The Palestine Committee in Stuttgart had invited Khatib to a “dialogue seminar on the situation of the Palestinian question and its future prospects” on Saturday. In a text announcing the event, Israel is referred to as a "Zionist enemy".

According to information from WELT, the President of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck, asked the local authorities to stop the event. Beck told WELT on request: "In Germany we have to guarantee that sympathizers of organizations that are on the EU terror list are not allowed to campaign for support here." The state is in a "guarantee obligation that no groups carry out terrorist propaganda against Israel bring into the country".

Mohammed Khatib is Europe coordinator for the Palestinian organization Samidoun. Samidoun describes itself as a "solidarity network for Palestinian prisoners". Last year, the organization was classified as a terrorist organization by the Israeli government. Israel regards prisoner aid as an offshoot of the PFLP, which is also on the EU's terror list. The federal government has so far held back with assessments of Samidoun. In September 2021, she did not answer a small inquiry from the FDP about the connections between Samidoun and PFLP. The information is "so sensitive that even the slightest disclosure of the information cannot be accepted under any circumstances".

However, critical observers such as the Israeli non-governmental organization NGO Monitor point to personal and ideological ties between the organizations. In the case of Khatib, too, the NGO assumes that he is a "member of the PFLP". NGO Monitor refers to a report by the "Palestinian Information Center" in which Khatib is named as Samidoun coordinator and PFLP member in 2016. The "Jerusalem Post" also characterized Khatib in the past as a "speaker for the PFLP" with reference to Arab media. When asked by WELT, a spokeswoman for Samidoun denied that Khatib was a member of a Palestinian party, including the PFLP.

According to the Federal Government, the PFLP rejects the existence of the State of Israel. It therefore pursues the goal of a Palestinian state within the borders of historical Palestine before the founding of the modern State of Israel with an undivided Jerusalem as its capital. To this end, the PFLP propagates the armed struggle and seeks solidarity with other organizations fighting the State of Israel.

According to information from WELT, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice is currently examining whether legal steps against Khatib are possible. However, the ministry left a request unanswered. The country's security authorities are also aware of the planned event. The United States refused entry to Samidoun official Khatib in 2017.

At the end of October, he appeared at a demonstration in Brussels. There he said: “We as Palestinians will no longer accept the rhetoric of a two-state solution. There is only one free Palestine – from the river to the sea.” Several black hooded men stood on the stage next to him. Khatib shouted, "Defeating Israel means defeating the US." Photos show that Khatib also attended a conference of various Palestinian organizations in Berlin in June.

The Palestine Committee in Stuttgart, which organizes the seminar with Khatib, is one of the German supporters of the so-called BDS campaign directed against Israel. BDS stands for "Boycott - Divestment - Sanctions". That year, the club won a lawsuit against the city of Stuttgart. The city had banned links to the association's website after criticism from a journalist on the "Stuttgart.de" site. The reason: The Israel boycott campaign is anti-Semitic. The Stuttgart administrative court ruled in April that the non-recognition of the association on the website violated freedom of expression.

In 2019, the German Bundestag passed a resolution condemning calls for a boycott against Israel as anti-Semitic. According to the decision, projects that call for a boycott of Israel or support the BDS movement may not be financially supported.

In January 2022, however, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that municipalities cannot deny the BDS movement access to public spaces. The trigger for the dispute was a decision by the Munich city administration to ban the use of a hall by BDS activists.