Jüdische Stimme, Supported by the ELSC, Takes the German Domestic Secret Service (Verfassungsschutz) surveillance to the German Constitutional Court
As part of our ongoing campaign to challenge the German Domestic Intelligence Service (Verfassungsschutz)’s surveillance of Palestine solidarity groups, the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East – EJJP Germany e. V. (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost) associaton, supported by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is now taking legal action at Germany’s constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht). This formally highest German court is tasked with protecting constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and political association.
This comes amidst escalating surveillance and repression of the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany, by the German domestic secret service Verfassungsschutz. The agency is increasingly deployed as a ‘poltical police’ to silence critics of Germany’s immense support for, profiteering from and complicity in Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
On 20th October 2026, partner lawyers Professor Dr. Florian Meinel and Dr. Ammar Bustami have initiated legal proceedings at the German constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) on behalf of the association Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East – EJJP Germany e. V. (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost).
The ELSC supports these legal actions as part of our campaign to challenge the German Domestic Intelligence Service (Verfassungsschutz)’s surveillance of Palestine solidarity groups.
The complaint brought forward to the constitutional court (Verfassungsbeschwerde) challenges 1) a previous ruling by the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg (Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg) against Jüdische Stimme and; 2) the ‘Consitutional Protection Report 2024’ issued by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior. Our complaint includes a motion for a preliminary restraining order (Antrag auf Erlass einer einstweiligen Anordnung) against designating the group as ‘confirmed extremist’ until the conclusion of the proceedings.
In April 2026, challenging their surveillance and repression by Germany’s domestic secret service Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz), Jüdische Stimme won a favourable ruling at Berlin’s Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht Berlin) against Germany’s Ministry of Interior, which publishes the yearly reports conducted by the domestic secret service. The court deemed the listing of the group as ‘confirmed extremist’ illegal and ordered a removal.
However, in September 2026 this ruling was overturned on appeal by the Higher Administrative Court.
As we argue, this new ruling constitutes a violation of Jüdische Stimme’s fundamental rights granted by the German constitution. Namely: Freedom of association, Freedom of expression and Prohibition of discrimination.
German court deplores Jüdische Stimme’s Jewish identity
The evidence for the “confirmed extremism” of the group Jüdische Stimme brought up by the security service and reaffirmed by the Higher administrative court in their ruling includes no accusation of illegal activities or crimes, but almost exclusively consists of social media posts or likes of posts, alleged to the group. For example: a member of the group is accused of appearing as co-publisher in an Instagram post which ‘describes Israel as a “Thief” of Palestinian Territory’.
Furthermore, the court found evidence for ‘extremism’ in a statement attached to the association’s statues, which ‘condemns the “deprivation of rights suffered by Palestinians since 1948 and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967” and calls for the “abolition of the apartheid system.”’
In line with these absurd accusations, the court deplores that a group whose members are Jewish could potentially play a special role among supporters of Palestine as a ‘Jewish chief validator’ instigating violent actions. This not only constitutes unconstitutional discrimination against the group’s Jewish identity; it fundamentally violates the right to freedom of expression outright.
Following the court’s ruling, the mere possibility that someone could invoke Palestine solidarity positions for illegal acts would be enough to justify secret service surveillance of anyone expressing such solidarity.
Lawyer Florian Meinel, representing Jüdische Stimme, comments:
‘If this standard stands, the domestic intelligence service will in the future decide how far civil society is allowed to go in taking a stand on foreign policy and human rights issues. The fact that the Higher Administrative Court even uses the Jewish identity of the members as an argument against them unfortunately shows how far case law has strayed from the established standards of freedom of association and freedom of expression, as well as the prohibition against discrimination.’
Anti-Palestinian Repression in Germany – anti-constitutional silencing of dissent
Prominent international and European human rights expert bodies regularly raise the alarm over Germany’s escalating anti-Palestinian repression and domestic secret service deployment, which German authorities consistently ignore.
Instead, Germany refuses to investigate criminal complaints for aiding and abetting Genocide, and continues to deploy extra- or outright illegal and unconstitutional measures to silence critics of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine and Germany’s complicity.
Successive German governments have proven to endorse blatant unconstitutional overreach of executive state organs as a shield against accountability for complicity in genocide. The increasing resort to secret service deployment as ‘political police’ is fundamentally unconstitutional and warrants a decisive response by the German constitutional court, tasked with protecting constitutional rights from governmental encroachment.
The ELSC will continue to support Palestinian solidarity groups in challenging the German secret service surveillance. Support our campaign.
