The State Security Police of the Federal Criminal Police Office, which is responsible for political crimes, is investigating an incident that took place during the Berlin International Film Festival.
At the premiere of the film Queerpanorama, which is not part of the main competition, Hong Kong director Jun Li read a speech on stage by Iranian actor Erfan Shekarriz, who stars in his film. The speech criticised the German government and its cultural institutions, including the Berlinale, for backing the “apartheid, genocide, and the brutal extermination of the Palestinian people.”
The speech also included the controversial slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which refers to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, thereby including Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Many activists for Palestinian rights describe it as a call for peace and equality after decades in which millions of Palestinians have lived under Israeli occupation. Critics of this slogan see it as a call to dismantle Israel and remove or exterminate the Jewish population from the land, which is why German courts have, on different occasions, charged people who have used it with incitement to hatred.
This is specifically the case since the German Interior Ministry has added the slogan to a list of forbidden signs and slogans, calling it “a trademark” of Hamas.
