After more than 6 years: Dr. Anna Younes Anti-Palestinian Surveillance case in Germany ends without consequences for Berlin’s Data Protection Authority

CASE UPDATE 

After more than 6 years: Dr. Anna Younes Anti-Palestinian Surveillance case in Germany ends without consequences for Berlin’s Data Protection Authority 

On 29. June 2026 The case of Dr. Anna Younes against digital surveillance and unlawful processing of her data by, ended at the Berlin Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht Berlin) with a refusal to reprimand the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information for failing their duty to investigate. 

In 2020, with support from the ELSC and over 1000 scholars, artists, activists, organisations and human rights defenders , Dr. Anna Younes initiated legal action against the two projects RIAS/MBR of the association Verein für Demokratische Kultur in Berlin (VDK) e.V. These state-funded sister projects claim to be countering discrimination but routinely label Palestine solidarity as ‘Israel related antisemitism’. 

This came after Dr. Younis discovered that RIAS/MBR had privately processed her academic work and other data, compiled it into a secret file which they then secretly disseminated to defame her. 

Our legal action on behalf of Dr Younes’ began with a complaint at the DPA in 2020, after RIAS/MBR refused to give her access to her personal data. It took DPA two years to finally acknowledge her right to access her data, thereby forcing RIAS/MBR to end their refusal and release the secret file. Shortly after, the Berlin District Court (Amtsgericht Berlin Mitte) also upheld Dr. Younes’ claim to access her data. The information released by VDK revealed that RIAS Berlin and MBR had been collecting people’s personal data based on their ‘positions on Israel and BDS’. 

Dr. Younes, her lawyer, and the ELSC then decided to file a complaint against the DPA for its two years delay and failure to take sufficient measures to address whether the dossier had been proactively disseminated without previous requests by the receivers. This would indicate the dossier was created to damage Dr. Younes’ reputation as an academic, cancel her from events and violate her fundamental right of freedom of expression. 

This complaint was recently rejected by the Berlin Administrative Court, thereby ending all legal proceedings on the matter.  

After more than 6 years of legal action – what remains? 

This case has exposed the double standards in upholding the so-called democratic principles with respect to Palestine solidarity across Europe. It infringes on the right to privacy, freedom of expression and the participation in public life of anti-racist and decolonial advocates in Europe. This case has also drawn attention to the deliberate targeting and defamation of Palestinian and decolonial scholars, all to erase Palestine from academic and public discourse, and revealed the methods of surveillance and defamation, which are now omnipresent in Germany. 

While we have seen intensification of these practices in the past few years at the backdrop of a growing anti genocide movement across Europe, all to shield Israel and complicit European governments from accountability, this case shows that the institutionalised anti-Palestinian repression was already well in place and destructively sabotaging academic freedom and public debate in 2019. Our legal action on behalf of Dr. Younes coincided with the German Parliaments adoption of the anti-BDS resolution, and exposed for the first time, how that resolution emboldened German state-funded actors like RIAS, to deploy secret services methods against Palestinians and Palestine solidarity voices. This exposure is not an isolated case; it was only a preview of what we witness today with regards to the anti-Palestinian repression and surveillance the German secret services now openly boast about – despite much of it being illegal. 

Nevertheless, the initial legal victories exposed RIAS/MBR’s illegal anti-Palestinian surveillance methods for the first time. More importantly: our campaign mobilised broad international support for Dr. Younes- and it was precisely this mobilisation that exposed this case’s dangerous implications, foreshadowing the escalated and state sanctioned anti-Palestinian surveillance in Germany we are witnessing today.