[Opinion. Imagine if the German people had risen up to break the Holocaust. Because that's what's happening to the Ulm 5. The lawyer protest was outstanding!

Q: "From the river to the sea." How does that deny the right of Israel to exist? Serious question.

Sorry, folks, TL:DR but wildly abridge from the original.]

‘Extraordinarily far-reaching’ Palestine Action trial gets underway in Germany

The ‘Ulm 5’ are facing prison time over a break-in at an Israeli weapons firm, in a case experts warn could set a precedent for criminalizing direct action.

Hanno Hauenstein

+972 Mag: 28 April 2026

Leandra Rollo seen behind a glass screen at the trial of the Palestine Action 'Ulm 5,' charged with breaking into Elbit's offices in southern Germany, at the Stammheim prison complex near Stuttgart, April 27, 2026. (Ignacio Rosaslanda)

In the early hours of Sept. 8, 2025, a group of activists wearing black hoodies that bore the red and white logo of Palestine Action broke into the offices of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in Ulm, southern Germany. 

No one was harmed during the action. They remained on site and called the police, who later detained them.

Since their arrest, the five activists — Daniel Tatlow-Devally (an Irish citizen), Leandra Rollo (a Spanish citizen), Crow Tricks and Zo Hailu (British citizens), and Vi Kovarbasic (a German citizen) — have been held in pre-trial detention in separate prisons across southern Germany. 

After nearly eight months, the highly anticipated trial against the activists who have come to be known as the “Ulm 5” began this Monday. It is taking place in Stammheim, the high-security prison complex outside Stuttgart that has become synonymous in Germany with the 1970s trials of the so-called Red Army Faction (RAF). 

In a joint statement earlier this month, lawyers representing the activists argued that holding the trial in Stammheim amounts to “a pre-judgement of the defendants” and gives little confidence for a fair trial. Benjamin Düsberg, who represents the Irish activist Tatlow-Devally, points to what he sees as a broader ideological layer shaping the case, tied to what is known in Germany as Staatsräson, its doctrine of near-unconditional support for Israel.

“This is about sending a signal: that direct action — especially when it targets the military-industrial complex — will be met with the full force of the state,” Düsberg told +972. “In a normal case, you wouldn’t see months of pre-trial detention for property damage and trespassing.”

None of the five defendants has a prior conviction. But now they face charges of trespassing and property damage estimated at more than €1 million and using the symbols of unconstitutional organizations — including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which was classified by the German Interior Ministry as a Hamas symbol and banned.

Central to the case is a fourth charge: membership in a criminal organization, prosecuted under Section 129 of the German Criminal Code. Although Palestine Action has not been outlawed in Germany, the use of Section 129 allows the state to deny bail and justify extended pre-trial detention on the grounds that the accused pose a threat to society. If found guilty, the invocation of Section 129 could pose prison sentences of five years for the accused.

 

“What is being prosecuted here is not just property damage and trespassing, but political dissent colliding with a state doctrine,” Düsberg said. “These are people seen as incompatible with this society. They are constructed as enemies, as antisemites, as ‘Hamas supporters’ — which makes it easier to treat them not as legal subjects, but as adversaries.”

 

A verdict against the five activists is expected by late July.

The five defendants entered the courtroom in handcuffs, and held behind a thick glass barrier separating the defendants from their lawyers. This made communication impossible and was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

When the trial continued after a two-hour-break, the defense lawyers took seats where their clients’had been sitting behind thick security glass in an act of protest against the separation. Schuster called this an attempt to push back against a trial setup that “needlessly obstructs the defense” and carries a “stigmatizing effect.” Judge Lauchstädt gave them five minutes to move to their assigned seats, threatening to remove them from the case entirely. When they didn’t, the court adjourned the session.

The defense team sits in protest behind the glass intended to separate them from their clients, April 27, 2026. (Hanno Hauenstein)

[Elbit’s systems] “effectively turns the battlefield into a video game,” Hever told +972. The laser targeting system, used by both the Israeli military and the German Bundeswehr, has dual uses. Offensively, it allows real-time target designation: “This gives soldiers the power to look around and with their eyes decide who they want to kill or what they want to destroy,”

Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States and is itself in a phase of massive re-armament that further tightened its alignment with Israel. In 2023, Berlin agreed to purchase Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system for €3.6 billion, later expanded by an additional €3.1 billion — the largest arms deal in Israel’s history. 

[The indictment] casts the defendants as belonging to a criminal organization driven by the aim of opposing Israel’s “alleged ‘genocide’” and denying its “right to exist.”

For Düsberg, the indictment’s repeated emphasis on Hamas, antisemitism, and slogans like “From the river to the sea” serves to delegitimize the defendants’ motives as such. “It’s about constructing a narrative in which their motivations can be dismissed entirely — where you no longer have to engage with questions of arms deliveries or political responsibilities.”

Finally, the indictment describes “Palestine Action Germany” as a group modeled on its UK counterpart, repeatedly invoking the UK ban despite it being declared unlawful by the British courts. “The underlying state classification does not constitute a reliable basis for assessments or conclusions in German criminal proceedings,” Zimmermann stated.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, also explicitly warned against such blanket classifications in a recent report. In it, he urges German authorities to refrain from broad bans on slogans, symbols, or other expressions of solidarity with Palestine, and instead to clearly distinguish between protected political speech and actual antisemitism.

“Everything about this case is political,” Tatlow-Golden said. The defense’s strategy relies on what Düsberg describes as a “nothilfe” (emergency) argument, referring to a doctrine in German criminal law under which otherwise illegal acts may be justified to prevent greater harm. “Our aim is to show that the wrong people are in the dock here,” Düsberg said. “Not those supplying weapons during an ongoing genocide — but those who tried to stop it.”

The argument rests on a causality the defense aims to establish in court: that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide, that Germany, through its continued arms exports, is complicit in genocide, and that Elbit Systems Germany, as a supplier to the Israeli military, plays a concrete role in enabling it.

Düsberg insists the Ulm case is an uncommonly straightforward application of the “nothilfe” argument, which is commonly invoked by climate activists. “I have never seen a case that lends itself so clearly to this kind of argument,” he said.

The prosecution’s reliance on the charge of forming a criminal organization under Section 129 allows the case to be tried collectively. By framing the defendants as members of a criminal organization, prosecutors can seek sentences of up to five years, and justify the extension of pre-trial detention. “Without the Section 129 charge, none of this would be possible,” Düsberg reflected.

In other words, the ongoing trial reaches far beyond Ulm, testing whether acts of direct action — particularly those targeting Germany’s military-industrial complex — can be framed as legitimate intervention in the face of genocide, or are instead prosecuted as organized extremism.

Elbit Systems Germany did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

People should be allowed to commit crimes if they believe the cause is righteous in their mind. The ends justify the means.

Sabotage is nonviolence. As long as no one is hurt.

I'm not so sure about waiting for the police. Better to live to sab another day...until you get caught.

I don't know the German system but it seems to me by prosecuting on anything political they're just playing into the hands of the accused who want to grandstand and become folk heroes.

Seems to me the cleanest thing would be to charge and most likely convict based on:

trespassing and property damage estimated at more than €1 million.

Trespassing doesn't sound very serious but that amount of damage does.

Are prosecutors in Germany compelled to charge on everything that is possible to charge?

On the River to the Sea chant, of course what that chant means which the vast majority of Palestinians want is to kick out all the Jews in all of Israel and murder those who resist instead. (Pro genocide chant.)

Edited May 18May 18 by Jingthing

24 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Sabotage is nonviolence. As long as no one is hurt.

I'm not so sure about waiting for the police. Better to live to sab another day...until you get caught.

49 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Sabotage is nonviolence. As long as no one is hurt.

I'm not so sure about waiting for the police. Better to live to sab another day...until you get caught.

Sabotage is sabotage.

59 minutes ago, nick supreme said:

People should be allowed to commit crimes if they believe the cause is righteous in their mind. The ends justify the means.

Crimes? Murder?

1 hour ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Sabotage is nonviolence. As long as no one is hurt.

If I sabotage your personal property in the name of a cause, will you excuse it?

1 hour ago, nick supreme said:

People should be allowed to commit crimes if they believe the cause is righteous in their mind. The ends justify the means.

So, Israelis should freely be allowed to commit crimes against the Palestinians , after all, they do believe their cause is righteous

14 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

So, Israelis should freely be allowed to commit crimes against the Palestinians , after all, they do believe their cause is righteous

They already have committed crimes against the Palestinians, just waiting for the trial.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, specifically including mass starvation as a weapon of war, murder, and persecution committed between October 2023 and May 2024.

2 minutes ago, Jeff the Chef said:

They already have committed crimes against the Palestinians, just waiting for the trial.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, specifically including mass starvation as a weapon of war, murder, and persecution committed between October 2023 and May 2024.

Everyone knows that Jeff .

Its old news .

Did you know that Israel bombed the King David hotel in 1948.............................

54 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

So, Israelis should freely be allowed to commit crimes against the Palestinians , after all, they do believe their cause is righteous

What crime? try living next door to them before posting bile.

2 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Everyone knows that Jeff .

Its old news .

Did you know that Israel bombed the King David hotel in 1948.............................

You were nearly right, got the year wrong, but as you say it's old news, even though 80 years on the same people are killing and maiming anyone who doesn't agree with them.

The King David Hotel was bombed on July 22, 1946, rather than in 1948. The attack was carried out by the Irgun, a right-wing Jewish paramilitary group, not the State of Israel (which was not established until 1948).

The Motive: The Irgun aimed to destroy documents incriminating the Jewish Agency in anti-British attacks, which had been seized during prior British raids.

The Attack: Militants disguised as Arab workers and hotel waiters planted explosives in the hotel's basement.

The Casualties: The explosion killed 91 people (41 Arabs, 28 British, 17 Jews, and 5 others), making it the deadliest attack during the British Mandate era.

7 minutes ago, Jeff the Chef said:

You were nearly right, got the year wrong, but as you say it's old news, even though 80 years on the same people are killing and maiming anyone who doesn't agree with them.

The King David Hotel was bombed on July 22, 1946, rather than in 1948. The attack was carried out by the Irgun, a right-wing Jewish paramilitary group, not the State of Israel (which was not established until 1948).

The Motive: The Irgun aimed to destroy documents incriminating the Jewish Agency in anti-British attacks, which had been seized during prior British raids.

The Attack: Militants disguised as Arab workers and hotel waiters planted explosives in the hotel's basement.

The Casualties: The explosion killed 91 people (41 Arabs, 28 British, 17 Jews, and 5 others), making it the deadliest attack during the British Mandate era.

I was giving an example of another old news item that often gets mentioned in threads .

"The ambulance had its lights flashinhg"

"Netanyahu comes from Poland"

10 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

I was giving an example of another old news item that often gets mentioned in threads .

"The ambulance had its lights flashinhg"

"Netanyahu comes from Poland"

Lying again Nick, Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I don't know the German system but it seems to me by prosecuting on anything political they're just playing into the hands of the accused who want to grandstand and become folk heroes.

Seems to me the cleanest thing would be to charge and most likely convict based on:

trespassing and property damage estimated at more than €1 million.

Trespassing doesn't sound very serious but that amount of damage does.

Are prosecutors in Germany compelled to charge on everything that is possible to charge?

On the River to the Sea chant, of course what that chant means which the vast majority of Palestinians want is to kick out all the Jews in all of Israel and murder those who resist instead. (Pro genocide chant.)

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I don't know the German system but it seems to me by prosecuting on anything political they're just playing into the hands of the accused who want to grandstand and become folk heroes.

Seems to me the cleanest thing would be to charge and most likely convict based on:

trespassing and property damage estimated at more than €1 million.

Trespassing doesn't sound very serious but that amount of damage does.

Are prosecutors in Germany compelled to charge on everything that is possible to charge?

On the River to the Sea chant, of course what that chant means which the vast majority of Palestinians want is to kick out all the Jews in all of Israel and murder those who resist instead. (Pro genocide chant.)

They're already folk-heroes, though not martyrs for the cause. This is true nonviolent action.

What I want answered is does "river to the sea" encompass all of Israel at the 1948 partition?

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Crimes? Murder?

NO VIOLENCE!

3 hours ago, TedG said:

If I sabotage your personal property in the name of a cause, will you excuse it?

Depends what the cause is. Corporate property is noy personal property.

1 hour ago, unblocktheplanet said:

They're already folk-heroes, though not martyrs for the cause. This is true nonviolent action.

What I want answered is does "river to the sea" encompass all of Israel at the 1948 partition?

All of Israel.

DUH!

How could you not know that?

1 hour ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Depends what the cause is. Corporate property is noy personal property.

What if I destroyed your personal property for a cause that I believe in?

10 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

So, Israelis should freely be allowed to commit crimes against the Palestinians , after all, they do believe their cause is righteous

The evidence suggests they are.

Sabotage is criminal damage and rightly prosecuted, but in the matter of words spoken, we’re not hearing much of Voltaire these days.