German police and courts responded in different manners to a series of protests and demonstrations showing solidarity with Palestinians over the weekend, with some forbidden and others allowed to go ahead.
In the German capital Berlin, police on Sunday evening appealed online to people not to come to a planned "vigil" for people in Gaza at Potsdamer Platz in the city center, saying it had been prohibited "because in this case it is a replacement-event for an already banned demonstration."
In a later update, police explained more on their reasoning for the restrictions, reports DW.
"More and more participants with flags and pro-Palestinian symbols were flocking to the gathering, originally planned as a vigil, which the organizer had said was neither desired nor planned when in prior collaborative talks," Berlin police wrote on social media. "As a result of the considerable number of people with pro-Palestinian symbols arriving, the replacement event was forbidden even before it had formally begun."
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque