In Innsbruck, around 400 pro-Palestinian protesters marched noisily but peacefully through the city center early Tuesday evening. The demonstration took place against the backdrop of escalating violence in the Middle East, with posters calling for “Free Palestine”. In advance, SPÖ state deputy head of Tyrol Georg Dornauer and the FPÖ demanded that the event be banned, but the police emphasized that they had “thoroughly examined” it.
The participants gathered for the first time at around 6pm at Column Anna on Maria-Theresien-Straße in the heart of the state capital. Accompanied by music and surrounded by a large Palestinian flag, it was mainly young people who took to the streets. Shortly afterwards, the speeches made clear the exact intention of the demonstration, during which pamphlets read about the “genocide of the Palestinian population”.
For example, one speaker denounced the “far-right government in Israel” and called on the international community to take action against “genocide.” A little later, the Gaza Strip was referred to, among other things, as a “concentration camp”.
After these applauded donations of words, the demonstration began at 6:30 pm. Cries of “Free Palestine” were sung as loudly as “Free Gaza”. At the demonstration, for example, posters said “End the blockade of Gaza” or “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. There were also calls to “stop the bombs in Gaza”.
The rather uniform procession – only a single “Antifa” flag could be seen – finally stopped in the path of the Anna Column over the market moat in the market square. There were more speeches there and the rally was announced to end around 9pm. There were no incidents. According to information from APA, the demonstration was organized by “Palestine Solidarity Austria”.
A ban on similar demonstrations was recently ordered in Vienna and Graz. The head of public relations for the Tyrolean police, Manfred Dummer, stressed to APA at lunchtime that Tuesday’s demonstration was duly registered within the scheduled deadline. Then, as usual, an individual case review was carried out. Particular attention should be paid to constitutional rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. “A demonstration can only be prohibited in absolutely exceptional cases”, emphasized the spokesperson. Such exceptional cases are “concrete evidence of criminal offenses” and a potential “threat to public order”. According to a detailed examination by experts, neither of them were present in this case. Dummer also highlighted that the event would take place under video surveillance, among other things.
In any case, Dornauer understood absolutely nothing about the demonstration. “I speak clearly against any activities or even public demonstrations that call for the annihilation of the State of Israel. Given the recent atrocities, such a thing is out of the question,” the state’s deputy governor told APA in the morning. After all, Israel is a “place of refuge for Judaism after the Holocaust.” “I will not sit still and watch as the climate in our streets is created to kill and drive out millions of people. Anyone who indulges in such actions and identifies with a terrorist organization has no place in our country, in our republic, and indeed in Europe”, the Tyrolean leader of the SPÖ demanded consequences.
He, Dornauer, also wants to express his position to the Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Karner (ÖVP). This should “influence the respective state police directors of all federal states”.
The Tyrolean FPÖ also criticized Karner: “War demonstrations by foreign states have no place in a neutral state, ÖVP Interior Minister Karner should finally recognize this,” said state party chairman Markus Abwerzger. It is a “scandal, especially given recent European history, that a demonstration against the State of Israel is approved”. Abwerzger warned of a “starting signal for new radical demonstrations and protest measures.” “Slogans” such as “Death to Israel” should “not be sung publicly or in private”, stated the FPÖ leader and saw the demonstration as a consequence of “years of green-black mass immigration policy”. “Effective measures against illegal immigration” are therefore necessary.