Turkey, PKK conflict must end through negotiations: Veteran Kurdish politician

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The prolonged conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has reached a point where negotiations are unavoidable, stated veteran Kurdish politician Mala Bakhtiar, describing Abdullah Ocalan's recent call for the PKK to abandon armed struggle as a rare opportunity for peace.
'Very favorable conditions' have arisen for peace between Turkey and the PKK, Bakhtiar said during a program aired on Rudaw and presented by Ranj Sangawi and Dilbixwin Dara, attributing Ocalan's message to his understanding of 'the essence of democracy.'
Ocalan's message - delivered by Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Thursday - urged the PKK to disarm and disband. The move sparked hope for an end to the four-decade-old conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives
Bakhtiar, a former senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), noted that despite Turkey using the full power of its military, 'it has not been able to defeat the PKK.' Meanwhile, the PKK 'has mobilized the Kurdish people's capabilities, both in the north [southeastern Turkey] and across other parts of [Greater] Kurdistan as well,' he explained.
Kurds believe Greater Kurdistan refers to the historical region traditionally inhabited by the Kurdish people, spanning parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.
According to Bakhtiar, the PKK has managed to 'transform [members of the Kurdish community] into guerrilla fighters' and was 'heroic and fought hard,' but failed to 'secure a political strategy to ensure the future of Kurdistan.'
The PKK on Sunday declared a unilateral sanction, effectively committing to a halt in fighting with Turkey. Bakhtiar described the PKK's 'commitment to Ocalan's message' as 'worthy of respect,' adding that the current situation 'is generally favorable' and has potential 'positive impacts on west Kurdistan [northeast Syria's Rojava] as well.'
Touching on past interactions with Ocalan, Bakhtiar recalled a 1993 meeting with the PKK leader in Damascus, where he advised Ocalan to shift focus toward civil efforts instead of armed struggle, believing that Turkey would respond by 'kindly engaging in a democratic process.' However, Bakhtiar noted that the PKK leadership at that time had a different view.
On Monday, the DEM Party reported that Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey's ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), contacted the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, who has been jailed in Turkey since 2016. He is currently serving a 42-year sentence on terror-related charges.
Bakhtiar welcomed Bahceli's outreach, seeing it as a shift in attitude towards Kurds, especially as it followed the prominent Turkish politician's suggestion last year, that Ocalan 'addresses the Turkish parliament and resolve the armed group's [PKK's] issue.'
For his part, Demirtas on Friday commended all of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, PKK leader Ocalan, and MHP leader Bahceli for their roles in advancing peace efforts between Ankara and the PKK.
Kurdish grievances
Pointing to the historic plight of Kurds who have historically 'been oppressed in negotiations,' Bakhtiar said that Demirtas and another veteran Kurdish politician, Ahmet Turk, were only given two choices. They were told, 'You either enter the government or you go to prison, you do not have a third option,' said Bakhtiar.
Turk, who was elected as a co-mayor for Mardin in southeast Turkey in March 2024, was sentenced to ten years in prison over his alleged involvement in 2014 protests in Turkey against government policies, corruption, and democratic backsliding.
Khalil Ataj, a former PKK leadership member who was close to Ocalan, was a co-guest with Bakhtiar on the same program. He revealed that while Ocalan's Thursday message has been praised as historic, it is not the first of its kind.
"Long before [this message], the PKK was ready for peace. Since 1993, Ocalan has been sending messages to Turkey that he is ready for peace," Ataj said.
The former PKK leadership member additionally confirmed that Ocalan had signalled openness to peace in 1997, when he received a letter from then-Turkish prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, who reached out to Ocalan in an attempt to de-escalate the conflict and open channels for negotiations with the PKK.
Describing Ocalan's latest message as a 'historic turning point,' Ataj stressed the importance of having an international and social climate that is conducive to peace between Turkey and the PKK, especially since the latter was only formed due to the denial of the Kurdish identity in Turkey, he elaborated.
The analysts' take
The program additionally featured analysts who shared their perspectives on the latest developments on the Kurdish arena.
Director of Rudaw Research Center, Ziryan Rojhelati, described Ocalan's message as a landmark and emphasized that 'the prevalent international and social circumstances are suitable for establishing peace in northern Kurdistan [Bakur, southeastern Turkey].' He added that the Kurdish community in Turkey is deeply integrated into Turkish society and that Ocalan's proposals align with their needs.
Rojhelati predicted that the PKK would begin to disarm following an upcoming congress, and that some PKK members who were not involved in fighting could be released in coming months, pending amendments to Turkey's anti-terror law and penal code. 'Some laws may be amended to allow the release of certain PKK members from prison, while others may be relocated to the Kurdistan Region or Scandinavian countries," he explained.
The senior researcher additionally anticipated that Ocalan might monitor the upcoming PKK congress from his secluded prison on Imrali Island, northwest of Turkey, and that Demirtas might be released amid the peace process.
Of note, the PKK on Saturday stated that it is ready to hold a congress, as demanded by Ocalan in his Thursday letter, but said that Ocalan has to lead the meeting in person. The latter is a precondition that PKK commanders on the ground had set weeks earlier.
Meanwhile, writer and political analyst Sardar Aziz suggested that Turkey's constitution be amended to better address the Kurdish issue, noting that "Ocalan's letter is not just for the PKK, but part of a broader message to Turkey."
DEM Party representative in the Kurdistan Region, Sitki Vakar, emphasized that the PKK is open to any peace effort in northern Kurdistan (Bakur, southeastern Turkey). "We also call for peace' and urge 'changing some laws' to solve 'most of the problems' faced by Kurds in Turkey, Vakar noted, stressing that 'our demand is that Mr. Ocalan be released.. for the peace process to succeed.'
However, writer and analyst Mustafa Shafiq expressed doubt over the content of Ocalan's letter stating, "I think only parts of Ocalan's letter were selected and combined together.' He criticized Turkey for its unclear stance, stating, "Turkey has not yet decided to stop the fighting, although Erdogan himself is overseeing the Kurdish issue.'

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Since October 7, 2023, Germany has witnessed an alarming surge in antisemitic incidents. These are not confined solely to the streets or the far-reaching online spaces but are increasingly entrenched in some of Germany's best-known and most prestigious academic institutions. At the forefront are Berlin institutions of Humboldt University (HU) and Freie University (FU), as well as Technische Universität Berlin (TU). These, critics allege, no longer serve as spaces for intellectual exchange, and ideological diversity, but now function as 'incubators of radical ideology.'' (To be fair, universities have also functioned as centers of social and political resistance to fascist ideologies, as well.) Today, German academic institutions have emerged as epicenters of pro-Palestinian protests that sanitize, rationalize, invert, and overtly disseminate antisemitic ideology. 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German universities were portrayed as "overburdened." This "overabundance" narrative became the central impetus for the 1933 Law Against Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities.[1] The law imposed a legal quota limiting the admission of non-Aryan students to no more than 1.5% of the student body. This serves as a rhetorical and administrative tool to legitimize discriminatory racial policies under the guise of institutional reform. German universities rapidly transformed into vehicles of antisemitic persecution: Jewish students and educators were expelled en masse, barred from libraries, cafeterias, lecture halls, and denied the their degrees. Politicized research further sought to sanitize the demonization of Jews – masking virulent antisemitism with scientific legitimacy. Simultaneously, many students affiliated with the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or the NSDAP, rose to prominence as intellectual architects of Nazi racial policy, lending academic credibility to genocidal agendas. Following the imposition of the 1933 Overcrowding Law, antisemitism was not only codified but deeply woven into the institutional fabric of German higher education, securing academia as an essential pillar of ideological affirmation for the National Socialist regime. Across disciplines, German scholars were conscripted to facilitate pseudo-historical justifications for the mythicization of the so-called "Nordic superior race," to glorify visions of a German-dominated European empire, and to frame Nordic cultural heritage as a product of Aryan supremacy. Academics were tasked with constructing a racially charged ideological framework that traced National Socialist beliefs to their alleged Germanic-Nordic origins, notably facilitated by the Nazi-led "Ahnenerbe" (Ancestral Heritage) institute founded by Heinrich Himmler. This encompassed the fabrication of historical and archeological evidence to legitimize Nazi racial ideology. Pseudo-scientific concepts such as "Rassenhygiene" (racial hygiene) promoted the understanding of Aryan genetic superiority justifying policies of sterilization, euthanasia, and genocide under the umbrella of a predetermined "racial destiny." These concepts were embedded across state institutions and utilized to legitimize the "territorial expansionism" (known as Lebensraum) . Historical narratives were likewise appropriated to reinterpret regional histories to portray Germans as the sole possessors of civilization, reinforcing the myth of the unbroken destiny of the Aryan race. Antisemitism In Germany Today The manifestation of antisemitism unfolding today, most notably through Holocaust inversion, represents a mutation of Nazi ideology, in which Nazi imagery and rhetoric are inverted and projected onto the Jews themselves, particularly Israelis, who are more fashionably labeled "Zionists" or "Zios." In this legitimized role reversal, Jews or Israelis are depicted as Nazis, while Palestinians or other groups are understood as the "new Jews," or victims of genocide. Common examples include equating Gaza with Auschwitz or with the Warsaw Ghetto, or calling Israel a Nazi state, or accusing Jews of "doing to others what was done to them." These analogies trivialize the Holocaust and weaponize its memory, distorting historical truth and facts, and demonizing Jews again by portraying them as perpetrators of the very evil they had endured – all propagated under the guise of anticolonial critique and moral responsibility. Antisemitism On University Campuses After Hamas's October 7, 2023, Attack Today's pro-Palestinian movement on German campuses mirrors this historical pattern through the prevalent intellectual sanitization of antisemitism, rebranded as alleged criticism of Israel – labelled "anti-Zionism." Just as scholars once mythologized the Nordic race to legitimize racial supremacy, the contemporary academic discourse at many German universities, and academic institutions across the West, now mythologizes Palestinian victimhood while simultaneously erasing any Jewish historical connection to Israel. These anti-Israel narratives rely on inversion: presenting Jews as "white colonial oppressors" while omitting their extermination and persecution and framing Israel itself as a "foreign implant." Reframing Jewish people as racially white and socially privileged obscures the distinct nature of antisemitism and the historical magnitude of the Holocaust, reducing it to a generic form of racism. This fosters a rather loose discourse in which antisemitism is relativized, dismissed, or legitimized under the guise of anti-imperialist solidarity. In this context, classical antisemitic tropes, many of which are rooted in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,[2] re-contextualized through the language of postcolonial theory and identity politics, sanitizes old prejudices within seemingly progressive frameworks. In both cases (past and present), academia is not a neutral space but one in which antisemitic ideologies are washed through scholarly language, legitimizing prejudice. While foreign funding, particularly from entities such the Qatar Foundation, significantly shaping academic discourse in the West, its influence is more limited in Germany than in the United States.[3] American universities, which depend heavily on private and international donations, are more exposed to ideological pressure from foreign donors. The state of Qatar, through the Qatar Foundation and Qatar Foundation International, has heavily funded U.S. universities, significantly promoting its foreign policy and ideological interests – including ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. This funding strikingly aligns with the radicalization of student bodies, and the increase of disruptive activism. In Germany, where universities are predominately publicly funded, such external influence is partial, yet partnerships exist – mainly, but not limited to, language and cultural programs with institutions like the Goethe-Institute. (See Appendix B). In contrast to U.S. universities, where institutional positions are frequently shaped by donor pressure and financial incentives, German universities are more driven by internal historical, cultural, and political dynamics that are unique to their post-WWII context. This entails a deeply rooted post-Holocaust culture that, though initially intended to uphold moral responsibility, has to some extent mutated into historical fatigue or at times into a form of moral inversion. The popular slogan, "Free Palestine from German Guilt" reflects a generational shift, particularly among Gen Z, who seek to liberate themselves from the burdens of historical responsibility by projecting blame onto the Jewish state. This stance is shaped not only by demographic factors, but also by many of Arab or Muslim background who either feel detached from Germany's historical burden, or who possess a distorted understanding of the Holocaust shaped by their own cultural and political context. Moreover, administrative paralysis and political caution greatly contribute to institutional inaction. University leadership in Germany tends to hesitate in intervening to halt antisemitic mobilization due to fear of being perceived as biased, overtly pro-Israel, or repressive. Surge In Antisemitic Incidents Across German Academia The February 2025 "Report on Antisemitism at German Universities"[4] was jointly published by the American Jewish Committee Berlin (AJC Berlin) and the Jüdische Studierendenunion Deutschland (JSUD).[5] The report documents a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in Germany from 2020 to 2024. National incidents increased by over 40% in 2021. Antisemitic incidents (In May 2021, protests in front of the Gelsenkirchen synagogue escalated during pro-Palestinian protest. Demonstrators shouted antisemitic slurs, including 'shitty Jews' paired with burning of the Israeli flags.[6])surged by nearly 83% in 2023, reaching a record of 4,782 cases. This trend continued into 2024, with over 6,200 reported incidents which demarcates a 30% fold increase from the previous year, despite growing and articulated safety concerns. At German universities specifically, antisemitic cases rose from 16 in 2021 to 151 in 2023, amounting to a 556% increase (with cases of violence and academic suppression through cancelled events due to hostile protests, and the revocation of appointments over protest-related demands). These developments mark a disturbing escalation, shifting from abstract hostility to overt targeting, intimidation, harassment, as well as the exclusion of Jews and Israelis from universities. The Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (Bundesverband RIAS), documented a total of 471 reported antisemitic incidents across Germany's educational institutions in 2023, with a staggering 301 cases occuring in the aftermath of October 7. (See Appendix C) Islamist And Nazi Ideological Convergence: Normalization Of Antisemitism Through Progressive And Islamist Narratives German universities, have allowed the re-normalization of antisemitism under the guise of left progressive discourse as well as historical revisionism. The manifestation of antisemitism on German university campuses transcends conventional political and ideological divides. Today's resurgence is primarily fued by two intersecting ideologies: radical left-wing anti-imperialism and Islamism. Although ideologically distinct - one is rooted in secular Marxist discourse and the other in religious-political doctrine –both converge in their vilification of Jews and the Jewish state through ideologically-distorted lenses. Leftist anti-imperialist groups increasingly frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a binary colonial narrative in which Israel is understood as a white European oppressor and Palestinian Arabs as colonized indigenous victims. Embedded in this narrative, the October 7, 2023 Hamas atrocities are framed not as terrorism but as "anti-colonial resistance." The slogan, "Free Palestine from German Guilt," frequently chanted at protests and seen on banners, reflects an ideological nexus of anti-Israel hostility with a broader rejection of Germany's post-Holocaust moral responsibility. Behind the seemingly progressive façade, these slogans recycle classical antisemitic tropes framing Jews as manipulators of historical memory for political gain, and echo the fabrications of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Aligned with this leftist antisemitism is the influence of Islamist ideology which, while doctrinally distinct from Nazism, has historically shared its reliance on antisemitism as a mobilizing tool. Nazism portrayed Jews as a racial threat to Aryan purity and to European civilization, while Islamist antisemitism typically depicts Jews as enemies of Islam and Islamic civilization. Thus, violence against Jews is seen as a religious duty under militant Islam, blending religious imagery with anti-Zionist and classic conspirational rhetoric. An ideological synthesis between Nazism and Islamist antisemitism was forged during World War II through the alliance between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, and the Nazi regime. Al-Husseini aligned himself with Adolf Hitler and aided in the recruitment of Muslim SS divisions, who broadcast Nazi propaganda across the Arab world. This amalgamation fused antisemitic rhetoric with selective references from the Quran, embedding Nazi ideology into Islamist discourse. The German News Bureau in Cairo was instrumental in channeling Nazi funds to Muslim Brotherhood structures from which Hamas emerged, helping cement an ideological fusion. As Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine increased, the Grand Mufti incited violence to avert these efforts. In Egypt, antisemitic narratives portrayed Jews as a "universal danger," echoing European fascism more than Islamic tradition. The propaganda tactics reflected strategies employed by the Nazi regime. In partnership with al-Husseini, this alliance cultivated a propaganda apparatus that amplified Nazi rhetoric across the Arab world: a legacy that remains omnipresent today (See Appendix D). Failure Of Denazification In The Arab World And Re-Importing Antisemitic Ideology Into German Academic Discourse In Europe, denazification was swiftly implemented in the aftermath of WWII. The Allies launched systematic efforts involving political trials, institutional reforms, and the dismantling of Nazi ideology. However, no equivalent process occurred in the Arab world. There, Nazi propaganda remained largely intact, recycled by Arab nationalist and Islamist movements. The ideological nexus combining Nazi antisemitism with Islamist radicalism outlived the Third Reich and culminated in violent pogroms against Jews in 1945 in some areas of then-Palestine, and in Libya and Egypt. A wave of hate crimes and persecutions of Jews erupted across the Arab and Muslim world. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser fueled this trajectory by reviving the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, welcoming Nazi exiles into his country, and integrating them into the network of Arab propaganda. Following the 1967 Arab defeat in the Six-Day War, antisemitic discourse intensified, becoming deeply embedded in the ideological DNA of modern Islamism. Sayyib Qutb, a key thought leader shaping Islamist movements, radicalized this discourse by reframing antisemitism as a religious imperative.[7] In his essay, "Our Struggle with the Jews,"[8] he identified Jews as enemies of Islam and presented Palestine as Dar al-Islam, a sacred Islamic territory from which Jews must be removed. This work became the principal symbolic battleground against the Jews, and the Jewish state became the theological front. Israel's destruction was no longer a political goal, but a theological duty – a doctrine that continues to mobilize Islamist antisemitism today. This neglected front of denazification has now come full circle. Antisemtic narratives, once exported from Germany to the Arab world, have been re-imported into the West, and visibly on German streets and campuses once again. Yet antisemitism in Germany is not merely imported; it is deeply ingrained in the national psyche, circulating subtly through inheritated narratives[9] and cultural codes.[10] The October 7 surge in antisemitic rhetoric and hate marked the violent culmination of the persistent ideological legacy rooted in National Socialism. Within this framework, complex realities collapse into binaries: Israel is vilified, and its destruction is understood as liberation. This normalizes antisemitism in the federal republic. At the center of this development lies the nexus of Islamist thought and selectively appropriated aspects of postcolonial theory: both critique Western modernity as spiritually hollow and culturally imperialist. Some Islamists perceived Western influence as intellectual colonialization. Postcolonial theorists focus on violence and the erasure of indigenous identity. The convergence of both approaches has proliferated into alarming ideological distortions. In this reframed narrative, antisemitic rhetoric is not only relativized and dismissed, but increasingly encouraged and legitmized under the umbrella of the anti-imperialist solidarity and fighting global injustice projected in the form of Zionism. Role Of Radical Student Groups In Campus Antisemitism And Institutional Complicity In The Absence Of Countermeasures At the forefront of this struggle on German campuses – particularly at Freie Universität und Humboldt Universität, as well as at Technische Universtiät Berlin, are radicalized student groups alongside the BDS Movement. Together, they inflame and lead the proliferation of student groups, most notably Young Struggle (YS), Students for Palestine, Palestine Committee FU Berlin, Student Coalition Berlin, Palestinian Students United, Waffen der Kritik (WdK), Decolonize HU Berlin, and International Youth, Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), and Studentcollective for Palestine at TU Berlin. Inspired by the large scale campus protests at U.S. campuses, these respective groups utilize similar tactics, including the occupation of lecture halls, protest encampments, lecture series embedded in the sit-ins, and so on. To strengthen persistence for the cause, some students vandalize campus sites, and they mark targets using the "Hamas Triangle" to mark Jewish, Israeli, or "pro-Zionist" targets. They threaten and defame Jewish students, and in some instances prevent them from entering university spaces. Despite public statements condemning antisemitism, many German university administrations' actions, especially HU and FU, have proven ineffective, symbolic rather than substantive, lenient and dismissive. These countermeasures fail to adequately target the resurgent antisemitism on campus. Palästinakomittee FU Berlin (Palestine Committee FU Berlin (PCFU) The "Palestine Committee FU Berlin" is a student collective at Berlin's Freie University (FU) encompassing a range of independent students and affiliates of several far left and anti-imperialist splinter groups. However, it works closely with the Marxist university group "Waffen der Kritik" (WdK) which is a branch of the political party Klasse Gegen Klasse. PCFU presents itself as a part of a broader movement that opposes repression at universities, stands in solidarity with Palestine, and promotes academic freedom. The committee plays a pivotal role in organizing occupation campaigns at auditoriums, protest camps at the FU campus, as well as vigils and lectures. It also calls for the divestment from Israeli institutions. PCFU enjoys ties with numerous like-minded student groups, with an aim to integrate into a broader pro-Palestinian alliance of students within Germany, Europe, and around the globe.[11] The committee regularly holds gatherings and lecture events at their community center, Rotes Café, near the university campus. A lecture accompanying the viewing of the documentary, "When It stopped Being A War: The Testimony of Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah" was held on May 20, 2025. Drawing on his experience in Gaza and interviews with others, he framed the Palestinian healthcare infrastructure as both resistance and self-determination, rooted in the legacy of the First Intifada (1987-1993). He alleged that Israel's targeting of Gaza's hospitals constitutes a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide. He further seemed to compare Israeli society with the Khmer Rouge regime, and accuses Western liberalism of "washing its sins by historicism."[12] (See Appendix E) At the viewing of the film, "When It Stopped Being a War: The Testimony of Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah" and the accompanying lecture organized by PCFU and the group "Gesundheit4Palestine" held at the Rotes Café.[13] Following the dramatic surge in antisemitism in academia across Germany, and amid the mounting pressure and outcry from the public, the German Bundestag passed a resolution entitled: "Resolutely Countering Anti-Semitism and Hostlity Towards Israel in Schools and Universities and Securing Free Space for Discourse"[14] ("Antisemitismus und Israelfeindlichkeit an Schulen und Hochschulen entschlossen entgegentreten sowie den freien Diskursraum sichern"). In response, PCFU published a statement rejecting the resolution, claiming it did not genuinely address antisemitism but rather instrumentalized it to censor pro-Palestinion opinion and suppress dissidents. Moreover, the group continued, the resolution equated anti-Zionism with antisemitism, conflating legitimate criticism of Israeli state policies with hatred of Jews. PCFU argues that the resolution distorted the meaning of antisemitism while downplaying the threat of right-wing extremism, and channeled state repression of the Palestinian solidarity movement at German universities which is present, the group claimed, through campus surveillance, expulsion of student activists, police intervention, and legal reprisals. These measures, the group asserts, erode academic freedom and transform campuses into agents of German state policy – particularly its unconditional support for Israel which PCFU considers to be driven by German imperial interests. The group further condemns collaboration with Israeli institutions and the criminalization of BDS support as ideological policing. PCFU's Instagram post announces a vigil, "Stop the University Resolution," responding to a Bundestag resolution aimed at universities. The banner at the bottom reads: "Education Instead Of Criminalization: Stop Prosecution Of Universities!"[15] This PCFU Instagram post notes that the "respective resolution does not combat antisemitism but exploits the fight against it for censorship." It is paired with a picture of the vigil organized in response to the resolution, with Palestinian flags and a large banner reading: "For A Free Palestine And A Free University […]"[16] An activist speaking at the FU campus vigil denounces the resolution as a hoax, highlighting the irony of its enforcement by a university that still houses a building named after Henry Ford – known for his deeply antisemitic record. Citing Ford's legacy, the activist uses this to dismiss the resolution's stated intent and argues it caters solely to the suppression of the advocacy of the struggle for Palestine.[17] A PCFU stand promotes "Boycott Apartheid Universities." Flyers were distributed claiming FU was complicit in apartheid and occupation through its collaboration with Israeli universities, allegedly violating international law.[18] PCFU has organized lectures in collaboration with BDS with representatives from the "European Legal Support Center" (ELSC). Topics include how universities act as political entities, and the role of boycotts as a strategic tool for accountability in cases of genocide and military occupation. Panelists include academics, legal experts, and activists with experience in BDS implementation, military embargo campaigns, and student-led advocacy.[19] PCFU organized a lecture and Q&A event with Emilia Roig[20] and a gathering at the Heba Camp in July 2024 which was held under the title: "Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitic? About the Weaponization of Antisemitism in Current Debates."[21] PCFU has actively engaged in dialogue with international student groups, exchanging ideas and tactics of mobilization, and drawing inspiration from campus encampments worldwide. PCFU also established its very own camp, the "Heba Camp" erected in June 2024 as a means to articulate their demands and apply pressure on the FU president. After three weeks of silence from the administration, the protest escalated into a building occupation, aimed at leveraging growing momentum to amplify student demands for justice in Palestine and institutional accountability. Tolerated for some time, the occupation was ultimately dismantled by police intervention. The movement called for an end to what it called genocide, apartheid, and occupation in Palestine, while further demanding comprehensive university reforms that coincided with BDS demands, as well as the rejection of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.[22] (See Appendix F). It further demanded expanded scholarships and access for Palestinian students, support for resistance efforts, and an arms embargo, a ceasefire in Gaza, protection from police violence, opposition to forced student expulsions, and resistance to social cuts and privatization. [23] A further, symbolic, demand is the renaming of the Henry Ford Building situated on the FU campus to the Esther Béjarano Building. Esther Béjarano was a survivor of Auschwitz and a longtime anti-fascist activist who has become a moral authority in pro-Palestinian circles. Béjarano, who died in 2021, was a vocal critic of Israeli policies and a supporter of the BDS movement, is seen by activists as embodying a understood nexus between Holocaust remembrance and Palestinian solidarity (See Appendix G). PCFU members leave their Heba Camp on the FU campus with a protest displaying banners, flags, and placards with the messages: "For A Free Palestine And A Free University – Join Heba Camp"; "No Pride In Genocide;" "Free Uni – Cut The Ties, Cut The Lies;" "#D Rule: Decolonize Palestine, Defund Apartheid, Defend Human Rights." Two book titles embossed on placards can be seen: Noam Chomsky's "The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians" and "The Hundred Years' War On Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi.[24] Reba Encampment in an FU auditorum in July 2024. The banner reads: "Reba Camp -Solidarity With The Resistance." PCFU works in close collaboration with the legal advocacy and donation initiative, "Hands Off Students Rights" – an alliance of activists from Berlin's major universities, including FU, HU, and TU Berlin. The campaign opposes what it calls "political expulsions and repression at universities" and urges solidarity with students currently facing legal proceedings from their participation in campus encampments. [25] Amid growing student mobilization at university campuses in the capital, university administrations – often reluctantly – have been forced to take legal and disciplinary measures to try to contain the escalating wave of protests. Legal and disciplinary measures have, thus far, remained largely symbolic. One recent case involved a student from FU Berlin who was sued for trespassing in connection with the Heba Camp occupation. The charges, which were later dismissed, coincide with the Berlin Senate's ongoing efforts to tighten the Higher Education Act, particularly through the introduction of Paragraph 16, which would permit forced expulsion from university without a criminal conviction. For many FU students engaged in the ongoing protests, Paragraph 16 signalizes a significant expansion of university and state authority to suppress political dissident. "Hands Off Student Rights" warns that such measures set a dangerous precedent for criminalizing student activism. While most of the legal cases brought to trial thus far have mostly resulted in acquittals, dismissals, or have been delayed, concerns – the concerns persist, particularly with each escalation in student protests potentially triggering stronger political and instutitonal backlash. In response, Hands Off Student Rights is raising funds through the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe[26] to mobilize funds to help cover legal expenses. The donation campaign also actively advocates against disciplinary measures, against broader repression of campus students, and against expulsions from the university. The last cause particularly concerns those activists without German citizenry. Hands Off Student Rights' Instagram post calls for donations through GoFundMe to raise funds for rising legal costs.[27] Students For Palestine Free University Berlin (SPFU) Students for Palestine FU Berlin (SPFU) is an independent student group that is closely affiliated with the "Student Coalition Berlin." It has played a leading role in organizing protests, lectures, and strategic events, and erected encampments on the Free University (FU) campus. SPFU declares that its duty is to carry on the Palestinian struggle, drawing inspiration beyond the region. Many of the SPFU gatherings are held at the students' community venue Café GalileA, a location on campus which serves as a center for political activism. SPFU identifies as part of a broader anti-colonial and pro-Palestine movement explicitly positioning itself in opposition to all forms of oppression and nationalism. At the core of its activism is the Palestine struggle, which SPFU considers as a framework through which to understand and combat global systems of imperialism and white supremacy, particularly within universities, which SPFU considers to be sites of "colonial knowledge" embedded within an imperial core. Among SPFU's principle demands is an end to the "genocide" in Palestine, a call for a full academic and cultural boycott of Israel, as well as recognition of Germany's colonial legacy as foundational to its current complicity in global oppression.[28] SPFU openly endorses individuals responsibible for vandalizing university property. It is likely that those involved in the demolition of university property are directly linked to SPFU in some form. SPFU is among the leading forces directing the pro-Palestine mobiliation at FU – particularly in collaboration with the Student Coalition Berlin. Together with a group of professors, DiEM25,[29] and the German branch of "European Jews for a Just Peace," SPFU co-organized a lecture on campus on February 15, 2025, titled "Conditions of Life Calculated to Destroy Legal and Forensic Perspetives on the Ongoing Gaza Genocide." The lecture featured Eyal Weizman, professor of spatial and visual cultures and director of Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.[30] Citing pressure from Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, FU almost canceled the event, but instead moved it off campus, to the Berlin district of Kreuzberg in a space called bUm – Raum für solidarisches Miteinander (bUm – Space for solidarity and cooperation). The move was no surprise, said SPFU, but rather "yet another reminder that we won't stop resisting the unlawful, blind support of APARTHEID ISRAEL. That's why we ask UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: Why is cutting ties not just necessary but just, but the bare minimum for any truly free university […]"[31] The event was livestreamed at the Café GalileA. Francesca Albanese speaking at bUm on the topic: "Why German Universities Must Cut All Ties to Israeli Apartheid Institutions."[32] In collaboration with other groups – most notably the Franco-German research center for social sciences, Centre Marc Bloch, and the Institute of History and Cultural Studies of the Near East at FU, SPFU co-organized a lecture series titled, "The Diversity of Palestine – A Cultural Journey Through Time." The series was launched to mark one year since what SPFU understands as the "Hamas-led operation on October 7" and the subsequent "genocide" committed by Israel. While officially promoted as an effort to humanize both sides of the conflict through cultural and literary lenses, the series placed primary emphasis on "debunking whitewashed Zionist narratives"[33] – aimed at reframing the discourse on Palestine within the language of anti-colonialism, cultural resistance, and historical redress. SPFU promoted the lecture series "The Diversity of Palestine – A Cultural Journey Through Time." On April 28, 2025, SPFU held a strategic meetings at Café GalileA, under the slogan: "Raison d'état kills."[34] At the meeting, the organizers planned a campus-wide academic boycott campaign to end cooperation with Israeli universities which, the SPFPU believes, are "complicit in Apartheid and Occupation."[35] SPFU declared a Global Protest Day rally for "Free Palestine" on April 12, 2025, held under the slogan: You Can't Deport A Movement – Against Germany's Racist Deportation Policy and the Crackdown of Palestine Solidarity."[36] SPFU endorsed various incidents of campus vandalism, including one on December 2024 where "autonomous urban specialists" vandalized the FU presidium to "remind us all of its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine."[37] In collaboration with fellow Students for Palestine university branches, SPFU condemned the detention of Mahmoud Khalil from Colombia University.[38] SPFU co-organizes off-campus rallies, including the "Jabalia Camp Will Not Fall" protest in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg on October 13, 20204.[39] On November 28, 2024, SPFU announced a shutdown of the Otto Suhr Institute at FU, declaring an end to normal operations in response to what SPFU describes as "academia's denial of genocide and silent complicity." Classes were cancelled as part of the disruption.[40] A banner bears the inscription: "No Class During Genocide."[41] Waffen der Kritik (WdK) Waffen der Kritik is a Marxist student organization directly affiliated with the Trotskyist Revolutionary Internationalist Organization (RIO),[42] and the online publication Klasse Gegen Klasse[43] (KGK). The WdK operates on various campuses across Germany (Berlin, Munich, Münster, and Bremen). RIO promotes internationalism, revolutionary socialism, anti-corruption while supporting labor rights, climate justice, and anti-racism. In 2023, both KGK and RIO aligned with the Revolutionary Socialist Organization (RSO) to run as independent candidates in the previously February 2025 federal elections. At the forefront was Berlin-based union activist Inés Heider, who promoted her election campaign by emphasizing solidarity with Palestine. Her campaigning focused predominately on grassroots mobilization, as a "revolutionary alternative" to the mainstream left-wing parties. WdK operates mostly within university politics, with a larger presence at FU, where the WdK secured seats in the student parliament. The group has also been elected to various leading positions within autonomous student organs. It states that it seeks to challenge the capitalist and imperialist structures intertwined within academic institutions, as well as within the broader society. Several members within its ranks have been charged on grounds of their participation in the occupation of an FU auditorium under the banner of Camp Heba in summer 2024, including WdK spokesperson Caro Vargas and leading member and writer for KGK Ari Aalto. Aalto was charged with trespassing by the FU's executive committee. The court fined Aalto 15 euros a day; Vargas was acquitted after trial. Following her acquittal, Vargas delivered a speech in front of the court house in the Berlin district of Tiergarten, claiming that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, citing assessments by international law experts and the U.N. Special Rapoporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese. Vargas argued that Israel's actions meet the legal criteria for genocide and noted, incorrectly, that the ICJ had acknowledged this. She emphasized that under Article 1 of the U.N. Genocide Convention, states, including its state universities and public institutions, have a responsibility to prevent and not be complicit in genocide. She concluded her statement by justifying her own actions as a moral obligation in the face of what she calls undeniable injustice. Caro Vargas delivers a speech in front of the courthouse in Berlin-Tiergarten following her acquittal on February 28, 2025.[44] Ari Aalto reported in April 2025 from the camp erected in a Humboldt University auditorium held under the slogan "Free Palestine Means No Borders." The group was protesting Germany's alleged complicity in what the group calls a genocide of the Palestinian people, and against Europe's asylum and border policies, which the group considers racist.[45] WdK posted about their participation in the HU auditorium occupation on April 16, 2025, which included acts of vandalism, including graffiti stating "Gaza" on a lecture hall's lectern. The caption accompanying the post reads: "Those who do not want to talk about genocide, should refrain from discussing property damage."[46] WdK's mother organization, RIO, has maintained close relations with fellow international groups through its membership in the Trotskyst Fraction Fourth International since 2013. RIO and WdK members regularly participate in joint political initiatives and international conferences, including a recent large-scale rally in Paris in May 2025 organized by the French organization Révolution Permanente, attended by approximately 2,000 people. [47] The event was accompanied by a pro-Palestinian march, in which WdK joined French comrades, visiting activists from the Spanish Corriente Revolucionaria de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores, and the U.S.-based socialist network Left Voice. WdK activist Esther Babl reported from the May 24, 2025, pro-Palestinian march in Paris, demanding an immediate end to the alleged genocide in Gaza. She condemned France, the U.S., and Germany for enabling Israel's actions, and called for grassroots mobilization, urging students and workers to organize independently of their governments. Esther emphasized that international solidarity is essential to building a future free from genocide, colonialism, and war. [48] Inés Heider, a leading figure in RIO and contributor to KGK, spoke at the Paris rally, addressing police violence. She cited the case of German Lorenz, a German national, whose father is Togolese, who was shot and killed by police.[49] It is claimed his only "crime" was being a migrant (he was not a migrant) and framed his death as part of a broader pattern of systematic police violence.[50]