Following the criminal interception of the Sumud flotilla carrying aid supplies, there has been a wave of major protests around the world. In Rome alone, 1 million people protested on Saturday, following a nationwide general strike the day before. In Amsterdam, 250,000 people demonstrated, and in Barcelona, 70,000.

In Germany, rallies have been announced to take place in numerous cities throughout the week, with a national demonstration planned in Berlin for Saturday. A rally marking the anniversary of October 7 was banned in Berlin, and demonstrators who gathered anyway were kettled in by police.

The day before, around 500 participants gathered for a rally at the Foreign Office in central Berlin. Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site were on site and discussed with participants a socialist perspective to end the genocide, which met with lively interest. By the end of the rally, almost everyone had a copy of the WSWS statement “The interception of the Sumud flotilla and the fight against genocide in Gaza.”

One rally participant, Christian, vehemently disputed the false equation of criticism of genocide with “antisemitism.” He stated:

“I have to say: the greatest threat to Judaism is equating the nation-state project of Israel with the religion of Judaism. No other religion or state would be allowed to appropriate an entire religion and religious community for itself. Israel’s nation-state project is a settler colony, at the end of the day a Western project that uses and abuses religion as a shield. This constant conflation of Zionism with Judaism also jeopardises the lives of Jews here in Germany.”

On Trump’s announced “peace plan,” he said, “The Palestinians still have no self-determination, and in the end it is just a plan forged in Washington and Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, with Tony Blair as colonial governor. The Palestinians’ right to self-determination, which is enshrined in the UN Charter, continues to be trampled underfoot. Therefore, this plan is at best a fig leaf or a distraction, but never a final solution.”

When asked about the nominally left-wing parties in Germany that also support genocide, he explained, “I would no longer describe the SPD as a workers’ party. The SPD will only make capitalism or imperialism a little more bearable, but it will not overcome it. And the Left Party is also a disappointment when it comes to solidarity with Palestine. ... The Left Party cannot really be seen as a socialist or workers’ party either. Unfortunately, the German parliamentary left can be forgotten.”

Another participant, Barcina also spoke out strongly against Trump’s “peace plan”:

“Trump’s plan is window dressing. They have slowly realised that the world is waking up, that the world sees what is actually going on behind the scenes. People have woken up, they are taking to the streets, blocking infrastructure. They now want to work against this resistance by proposing an utterly false peace plan. ...

“The point is: what they are doing today is hypocritical. They are not telling the truth. If they were serious about it, they would have done something against the war. But they are not serious, and they are turning a blind eye— just like Germany and the Allied states that support this war. But people are not stupid, they have woken up, and that is why we are here today, that is why people in Barcelona, in Spain, in Italy are on the streets—and there are more and more of them. You can’t fool all the people.”

When asked about the prospect of building a movement among the working class against genocide, he said, “That’s great! That’s very good. Blocking infrastructure is very good. If you stop supplying Israel with weapons systems that can be used to kill children and innocent people, then it will no longer work. Israel can only do this because America and Germany finance Israel with billions every year and promote this war. This exploitative hypocrisy—killing innocent people—only works because of the industrialised countries that help them.”

Mika explained that the genocide in the Gaza Strip “is the same thing that happened under the Nazis. It’s exactly the same, and we’re letting it happen.” She describes October 7 as “a construct to have an excuse to attack Gaza and control it completely. It has always been about the rich making even more money and taking as much as possible from the poor,” she explained.

Regarding the role of the “left-wing” parties, she said, “What is happening right now is that essentially the SPD and all the other major parties are the same, and they are acting like the Nazi party. Essentially, it’s the same thing.”

Regarding the prospect of developing a movement among the working class against genocide, she emphasised, “Whenever there is an action like the one in Gaza, there is resistance. And it comes from the workers. I hope it spreads across the world. The fire has been lit.”