Opinion

Germany: Anti-Palestinian racism on the rise


January 3, 2026

 Middle East Monitor.

Demonstrators holding Palestinian flags and placards gather at Oranienplatz in the Kreuzberg district and march through the city center during a pro-Palestinian demonstration calling for sanctions against Israel in Berlin, Germany on December 20, 2025. [Halil Sağırkaya – Anadolu Agency]

by Leon Wystrychowski


In 2003, the Antidiskriminierungsnetzwerk Berlin (Anti-Discrimination Network Berlin, ADNB) was founded in the German capital. Since then, it has published annual reports documenting various forms of discrimination and what is referred to in Germany as group-focused enmity. In December, the network presented its 2023/24 Anti-Discrimination Report, concluding that racist hostility had increased by around 20 per cent over the two-year period. According to the report, “anti-Muslim and anti-Black racism were particularly prevalent,” and the most common setting for incidents was the workplace. The report further states: “For 2024, we observed an unprecedented surge in anti-Palestinian racism in the context of employment.”

Main setting: The workplace

Since October 2023, employees with Palestinian backgrounds or connections have faced severe pressure, both from state institutions and in their private lives. In January 2025, the German parliament passed a resolution ostensibly aimed at tackling antisemitism at universities. In reality, its purpose is to exclude students and academics who speak out in support of Palestine from the higher-education sector. A study from September 2025 found that 85 per cent of German researchers believe that academic freedom is under threat due to the anti-Palestinian campaigns unleashed in Germany after 7 October 2023. Activists working for public institutions have also been dismissed for this reason – among them Palestinian activist Ahmad Othman and German lawyer and politician Melanie Schweizer.

Economic repression has not been confined to academia and public institutions. It has hit artists and cultural workers especially hard. Artists who express support for Palestine are being cancelled en masse and pushed out of artistic collectives. Media professionals have also been targeted. One particularly extreme case is that of German-Turkish left-wing journalist Hüseyin Doğru, whom the federal government placed on the EU sanctions list. As a result, the father of several children is no longer permitted to work anywhere in the EU or access social-security benefits. At the same time, he is barred from leaving Germany.

These attacks disproportionately affect Palestinians, leading some to conceal their identity. Yet anyone advocating for Palestine – whether ethnic Germans, Arabs or Jews – risks being targeted. Notably, however, migrants are affected especially often – including those from the Middle East, Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe, the UK and the Americas – as they are significantly over-represented in the Palestine solidarity movement.

Anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim racism

As the ADNB notes, anti-Palestinian racism frequently “goes hand in hand with anti-Muslim racism”. Even so, the network has observed “new racist constructions that specifically reference Palestine” since October 2023. For this reason, the organisation has decided to record anti-Palestinian racism as “a distinct and independent form of racist discrimination,” documenting cases linked specifically to Palestine as such.

The report stresses that incidents of anti-Palestinian racism “span all areas of life: employment, schools and nurseries, public transport, and interactions with the police”. They include “bans on cultural symbols such as the kufiya”, “blanket accusations labelling people as antisemites or supporters of terrorism,” insults from passers-by, and “racial profiling by the police”. Hostility towards Palestinians has “escalated into an exceptionally intense form of racist discrimination within just a few months”. Despite this, it is still “not recognised as racism by most responsible institutions and actors”.

This is hardly surprising, given that these very institutions are driving and amplifying it. The report itself addresses this, criticising the media for contributing to the “criminalisation, defamation and stereotyping of Palestinians and pro-Palestinian individuals, as well as of protests in support of Palestine”. According to the ADNB, this incitement “creates the conditions and provides the fertile ground for an increase in discrimination, violence and racist agitation targeting Palestinian communities”.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.