The German organisation Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East (JV) may, for the time being, continue to be classified as “extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence service. This was decided by a court in Cologne last Wednesday.

The organisation describes itself as anti-Zionist and is among the most prominent Jewish voices in Germany advocating for Palestinian rights. It characterises what has been taking place in Palestine for more than 100 years as settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. Its members appear publicly at demonstrations and as speakers, and support initiatives such as the global BDS movement and the German “Kufiyas in Buchenwald” campaign.

While JV has faced a mixture of systematic ignorance and defamation as “self-hating Jews” from the German mainstream media, it has increasingly come under scrutiny from the authorities amid the intensification of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany since October 2023. Prominent members such as Iris Hefets and Udi Raz, for example, have repeatedly been arrested by police in Berlin during protest........

© Middle East Monitor