{"id":9321,"date":"2026-11-13T14:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T13:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/?p=9321"},"modified":"2026-11-13T15:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T14:11:25","slug":"judische-stimme-supported-by-the-elsc-takes-the-german-domestic-secret-service-verfassungsschutz-surveillance-to-the-german-constitutional-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/judische-stimme-supported-by-the-elsc-takes-the-german-domestic-secret-service-verfassungsschutz-surveillance-to-the-german-constitutional-court\/","title":{"rendered":"J\u00fcdische Stimme, Supported by the ELSC, Takes the German Domestic Secret Service (Verfassungsschutz) surveillance to the German Constitutional Court\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of our ongoing campaign to challenge the<\/em> German Domestic Intelligence Service (Verfassungsschutz)\u2019s surveillance of Palestine solidarity groups, the<\/em> Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East \u2013 EJJP Germany e. V. (J\u00fcdische Stimme f\u00fcr gerechten Frieden in Nahost) associaton, supported by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is now taking legal action at Germany\u2019s constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht). This formally highest German court is tasked with protecting constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and political association.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018poltical police\u2019 to silence critics of Germany\u2019s immense support for, profiteering from and complicity in Israel\u2019s genocide in Palestine.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 20th<\/sup> <\/sup>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 \u2013 EJJP Germany e. V. (J\u00fcdische Stimme f\u00fcr gerechten Frieden in Nahost).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ELSC supports these legal actions as part of our campaign to challenge the German Domestic Intelligence Service (Verfassungsschutz)\u2019s surveillance of Palestine solidarity groups.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/em>J\u00fcdische Stimme and; 2) the \u2018Consitutional Protection Report 2024\u2019 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2026, challenging their surveillance and repression by Germany\u2019s domestic secret service Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt f\u00fcr Verfassungsschutz), <\/em>J\u00fcdische Stimme won a favourable ruling<\/a> at Berlin\u2019s Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht Berlin) against Germany\u2019s Ministry of Interior, which publishes the yearly reports conducted by the domestic secret service. The court deemed the listing of the group as \u2018confirmed extremist\u2019 illegal and ordered a removal.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in September 2026 this ruling was overturned<\/a> on appeal by the Higher Administrative Court.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we argue, this new ruling constitutes a violation of  J\u00fcdische Stimme\u2019s fundamental rights granted by the German constitution. Namely: Freedom of association, Freedom of expression and Prohibition of discrimination.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

German court deplores J\u00fcdische Stimme\u2019s Jewish identity <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The evidence for the \u201cconfirmed extremism\u201d of the group J\u00fcdische Stimme brought up by the security service and reaffirmed by the Higher administrative court in their ruling<\/a> 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 \u2018describes Israel as a \u201cThief\u201d of Palestinian Territory\u2019.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the court found evidence for \u2018extremism\u2019 in a statement attached to the association\u2019s statues, which \u2018condemns the \u201cdeprivation of rights suffered by Palestinians since 1948 and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967\u201d and calls for the \u201cabolition of the apartheid system.\u201d\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018Jewish chief validator\u2019 instigating violent actions. This not only constitutes unconstitutional discrimination against the group\u2019s Jewish identity; it fundamentally violates the right to freedom of expression outright.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the court\u2019s 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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawyer Florian Meinel, representing J\u00fcdische Stimme, comments<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018If 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<\/em> freedom of expression, as well as the prohibition against discrimination.\u2019<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Anti-Palestinian Repression in Germany – anti-constitutional silencing of dissent<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prominent international and European human rights expert bodies regularly raise the alarm over Germany\u2019s escalating anti-Palestinian repression and domestic secret service deployment, which German authorities consistently ignore<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Germany refuses to investigate criminal complaints for aiding and abetting Genocide<\/a>, and continues to deploy extra- or outright illegal and unconstitutional measures to silence critics of Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide in Palestine and Germany\u2019s complicity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018political police\u2019 is fundamentally unconstitutional and warrants a decisive response by the German constitutional court, tasked with protecting constitutional rights from governmental encroachment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ELSC will continue to support Palestinian solidarity groups in challenging the German secret service surveillance. Support our campaign.<\/a> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of our ongoing campaign to challenge the German Domestic Intelligence Service (Verfassungsschutz)\u2019s surveillance of Palestine solidarity groups, the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East \u2013 EJJP Germany e. V. (J\u00fcdische Stimme f\u00fcr gerechten Frieden in Nahost) associaton, supported by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is now taking legal action at Germany\u2019s constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht). This formally highest German court is tasked with protecting constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and political association.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"test-2":[],"country":[25],"blog_categories":[],"class_list":["post-9321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-update","country-de"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"Case Update"}],"country":[{"value":25,"label":"Germany"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/elsc.support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/CASE-UPDATE-VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ.png",1000,562,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Bashar","author_link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/author\/bashar\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"Case Update","slug":"case-update","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Updates on legal cases ELSC is working on.","parent":0,"count":41,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":41,"category_description":"Updates on legal cases ELSC is working on.","cat_name":"Case Update","category_nicename":"case-update","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9325,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321\/revisions\/9325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9321"},{"taxonomy":"test-2","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/test-2?post=9321"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=9321"},{"taxonomy":"blog_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_categories?post=9321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}