Thousands rallied at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, demanding an end to Israel’s Gaza offensive and halting German arms deliveries to Ukraine.
According to police statistics, some 12,000 people attended the demonstration against Israel's operation against Hamas in the region in the heart of the German city.
However, the event, which was organized by the far-left BSW party, was one of the biggest pro-Palestinian gatherings in Germany in recent months, with an estimated 20,000 attendees.
Germany has made backing the State of Israel a pillar of its foreign policy due to its historical guilt for the Holocaust.
However, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed disapproval of the Gaza War and declared in August that his nation will stop exporting military hardware that could be used in the Gaza Strip as part of a partial arms embargo.
A 20-year-old student named Marie Atwan told AFP that she traveled from Hamburg to attend the demonstration in order to call for "a complete halt to German arms deliveries" to Israel.
She claimed that failing to prohibit those arms sales amounted to condoning "the genocide in Gaza." Israel vehemently denies the accusation of genocide, claiming that it takes precautions to protect civilians and accused Hamas of endangering noncombatants.
Sahra Wagenknecht, the founder of BSW, also discussed the conflict in Ukraine during the event and called on Berlin to commit "to peace negotiations both in the Middle East and in Ukraine."
What reactions did German political parties give to the rallies?
The far-left BSW party. who organized the pro-Palestinian rally, condemned the actions of Israel in Gaza and called for an end to arms deliveries to Ukraine because the conflict constituted an anti-war and anti-militarist struggle.
The mainstream parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) were anxious about the enormity of the protests and bombastic rhetoric, and stressed Germany needed to maintain its strong historical commitment to Israel's security during the Gaza conflict.
CDU leader, Friedrich Merz has rung in moderately by announcing a partial embargo of arms exports to Israel which might be used in Gaza, with that cautious measure appearing to reflect public opinion but as well as the need to maintain some diplomatic distance.