At a rally held by Amnesty International Germany in Berlin on 5 June 2025, a well-known activist close to the PFLP appeared as part of the event. The Jewish association WerteInitiative e.V. regards this as utterly unacceptable. “We see this as sound grounds for calling the charitable status of Amnesty International Germany into question,” says Nelly Eliasberg, spokeswoman for WerteInitiative. “The legitimisation of terror has no place in a human rights organisation that ought to claim political neutrality.” At a protest action on the occasion of the Berlin visit of the Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar, entitled “Red Line International Law”, in which various NGOs took part together with Amnesty International Germany, the activist Ibrahim I., known to be close to the PFLP, made an appearance. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has been on the European Union’s terror list since 2002. The activist in question also appeared there together with Katja Müller-Fahlbusch, Amnesty’s officer for the Middle East, who has repeatedly drawn attention with anti-Israel statements.
Antisemitic symbolism glorifying violence
In addition, red-painted hands were displayed at the rally – a well-known reference to the Ramallah lynching (2000), in which two Israeli reservists were lynched by a Palestinian mob and their bodies publicly desecrated. There were also chants of “Intifada”, familiar from anti-Israel demonstrations, which in this context are to be understood unmistakably as a call to violence against Jewish women and men. “When an organisation such as Amnesty International Germany offers a platform to a figure with ties to the PFLP and thereby tolerates the glorification of terror, it oversteps not only moral but also legal limits,” says Eliasberg. “Amnesty International Germany has thus crossed a red line. An association that permits terror-legitimising and antisemitic symbolism at its events must not continue to enjoy tax privileges. This toleration of, and closeness to, extremist and antisemitic forces is unworthy of our constitutional state. We therefore call for a review of the charitable status of Amnesty International Germany.”
The legal position: no charitable status where there is proximity to terror
Under Section 52 of the German Fiscal Code (Abgabenordnung, AO), organisations are charitable only if they serve the general public “in a selfless manner” and do not act against the free democratic basic order. Tolerating calls to violence and the appearance of an activist close to the PFLP stand in clear contradiction to this. “By inviting activists close to the PFLP and tolerating the glorification of terror, Amnesty International Germany has left the sphere of freedom of expression and of commitment to universal human rights and is moving within the milieu of antisemitic and anti-democratic structures. We must not allow once-respected organisations such as Amnesty to be hijacked by antisemitic activism and thereby to contribute to the normalisation of hatred of Israel and of Jews.” Background information, among other things on the PFLP HERE
