BT3P Initiative wins lawsuit against city of Frankfurt am Main and is awarded municipal space for BDS event
The Palestinian-Jewish-German initiative Bundestag 3 für Palästina (BT3P) of Amir Ali, Judith Bernstein and Christoph Glanz has won the right to rent municipal space in Frankfurt am Main in front ot the Hessian Administrative Court. With the help of Berlin lawyer Ahmed Abed, it was possible to enforce the use of space against the proclaimed BDS ban of the city of Frankfurt am Main by means of an emergency application. The decision of the 8th Senate of the Hessian Administrative Court (Case No. 8 B 3012/20) states:
"The respondent is provisionally ordered by way of interim injunction to provide the applicant (...) with the "Great Hall" in the SAALBAU Südbahnhof on December 5, 2020 under the usual contractual conditions in the period from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. for the purpose of holding the event "Freedom of expression for human rights work instead of censorship - The lawsuit of Bundestag 3 for Palestine (BT3P) against the anti-BDS resolution of the German Bundestag"."
BT3P commented on this success against the City of Frankfurt am Main as follows:
Amir Ali: "Three years after the decision of the city of Frankfurt am Main against the BDS movement, it has now been clarified by the court that it violates the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). The city cannot forbid us to speak about human rights violations against the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation and the demand for equal rights for all people in Israel and Palestine. All cities, towns and municipalities and the German Bundestag itself must quickly rescind their discriminatory and unlawful resolutions against human rights work for the Palestinians."
Judith Bernstein: "For the second time, Mayor Uwe Becker has tried to prevent discussion of Palestinian human rights and has failed again. Last year Becker tried in vain to prevent a lecture with me as Jewish spokesperson of the Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group in Frankfurt. In doing so, Becker compared me to the anti-Semitic murderer of Halle, which is why I filed a lawsuit against the city of Frankfurt am Main."
Christoph Glanz: "The city of Frankfurt am Main allows demonstrations of the partly openly anti-Semitic “Querdenker” (meanwhile banned), but wants to prevent discussions of Palestinian, Jewish and German human rights activists on Palestine and Israel again and again. This way the city of Frankfurt am Main is supporting the ultra-right Israeli government and its occupation and apartheid policy towards the Palestinians. These human rights crimes committed daily by the state of Israel do not pause during the Covid-19 pandemic and that is why we will continue to work against it and will not stop until freedom, equality and justice are achieved for all Palestinians."
Ahmed Abed, attorney for BT3P: "The Hessian Administrative Court, in lifting the ban on rooms, has declared the Frankfurt decision against BDS human rights activists legally irrelevant. The Bavarian Administrative Court, the Administrative Court of Cologne and the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony could not find any anti-Semitism in the BDS movement in previous rulings and have also lifted all room bans. The German Bundestag should now act and rescind the decision against the BDS movement and instead clearly condemn and sanction Israel's occupation, which is illegal under international law. The European Court of Justice has called on member states to enforce mandatory labeling of Israeli settler goods to end the illegal Israeli occupation."
Due to the short notice ruling of the Hessian Administrative Court, the BT3P event will take place one week later, on 12.12.2020 at 14:00-16:00, at the SAALBAU premises at Südbahnhof.
The BT3P have filed a lawsuit against the decision of the Bundestag to ban the BDS movement. With the further decision of the Hessian Administrative Court, there is further proof that this decision is illegal and violates the German constitution.
For press and interview inquiries, please contact press@bt3p.org. We will be happy to provide all relevant documents.