Activists Plan Protest Over Keffiyeh Ban at Holocaust Site • Jewish Breaking News

In an example of perhaps the greatest chutzpah of all time, a group called Kufiyas in Buchenwald is planning a protest to target the site of the former concentration camp because of its ban on keffiyehs and other anti-Israel symbols. The group, which claims under its mantle Jews, queers and anti-fascists, says the ban is “massively intensifying repression against solidarity with Palestine.”

The protest, scheduled in April, “vividly illustrates the events of the former concentration camp” and will include panel discussions and lectures. The group also demanded of the management of the Buchenwald Memorial a list of concessions: conduct open discussions of the “genocide” in Gaza at the memorial itself; remove the ban on anti-Israel symbols and stop labeling them antisemitic; and permit the entry of people who criticize Israel and express solidarity with Gazans. However, the protest will likely not take place at the site of Buchenwald because of the ban.

Stay informed with JBN email alerts! Get the latest updates on breaking stories, global events, and community news directly in your inbox.

The incident that sparked the movement to organize the protest was a visitor to the camp who gave her name only as Anna. Told she could not wear her keffiyeh at the Buchenwald Memorial, she requested an expedited court application to allow her to wear it. Her request was denied, and the Buchenwald Memorial moved to formalize the ban against keffiyehs.

The Kufiyas in Buchenwald described Buchenwald as promoting “historical revisionism and genocide denial” and choosing to “consistently spread Israeli propaganda and provide ideological support for the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

The group said that by banning the keffiyeh and labeling it antisemitic and fascist, Buchenwald is “relativizing and whitewashing German responsibility for the genocide of European Jews by shifting it onto the Palestinians.” The cancellation of a lecture by Jewish anti-Zionist Omri Böhm also generated anger among the group’s members, who they say was “disinvited under pressure from the Israeli embassy for having criticized Zionism and the genocide in Gaza.” Demonstrating their utter incomprehension of the memorial’s purpose, the group pointed out what to them appears to be a double standard: Israeli flags and symbols are permitted in Buchenwald.