Rally on October 7th: Why it's not about the victims

It has been three years since Hamas' attack on Israel left more than 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and more than 250 people were kidnapped. On the anniversary of October 7th there will be demonstrations again in many places, including Hamburg. However, it will hardly be about the victims of the attacks here, as the motto of the registered demo leaves little doubt: "Three years of genocide. Free Gaza. Free West Bank. Free Palastine".

The “Thawra Hamburg” group, which is being observed by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected extremist case, is mobilizing for this demonstration in the city center. “Thawra Hamburg” describes itself as a “young migrant self-organization” that wants to “transform their frustration, sadness and anger towards the unjust and profit-obsessed structures of this world into revolutionary practice.”

According to the group's self-image, they are concerned with the “principles: anti-imperialism, anti-racism and decoloniality”, according to which the “Project Israel” must be classified as a “settler colony of Israel”. The “history of the settler colony” begins long before 1948, as the group puts it in a brochure.

The Israeli-French sociologist Eva Illouz analyzed the reactions to the Hamas massacre in progressive and left-wing academic circles in her essay “October 8th” in 2025. She sees “postcolonialism” as a cause for the view that is also shared by groups like “Thawra Hamburg”. Postcolonialism, Illouz argues, dissolves the complexity of history and the present into a black and white dichotomy. According to Illouz, this meant that compassion did not dominate the day after the massacre on October 7, 2023.

In its search for arguments, the pro-Palestinian movement also uses Frantz Fanon's “The Wretched of the Earth,” a psychoanalytic and political analysis of colonialism, racism and the mechanisms of decolonization and violence. Fanon, a French psychiatrist, philosopher and pioneer of decolonization from Martinique, emphasized in his major work published in 1961 not only that colonialism was based on “systematic dehumanization”. He also described how the great doctrines of equality and universalism that “Europe once represented” could be slipping into the authoritarian and anti-Semitic.

And Alice Cherki, psychoanalyst and Fanon biographer, said in a 2025 interview with “iz3W” that Fanon “wanted the Palestinians to have their own state,” but that he “never for a moment stood on the side of an organization like Hamas.”

The position of "anti-colonial resistance" represented by pro-Palestinian groups like "Thawaa Hamburg" apparently leads to alliances across left-wing milieus - which suggests that one of the ideas of the "Revolutionary Cell" seems to have been forgotten today: "Anyone who dreams of liberation but does not want to know anything about the dark side of the liberation struggle is addicted to naive ideas of revolution," wrote the urban guerrilla group. The group stated in 1991 in a multi-page paper entitled “Gerd Albartus is dead” that the legitimate criticism of Israeli politics and the obvious solidarity with the Palestinian resistance should not end in left-wing anti-Zionism. Albartus belonged to the “Revolutionary Cell” and was executed by a Palestinian resistance group as an alleged traitor.

Illouz put it this way in 2025: “You don’t defend the Palestinians better by virtuously displaying hatred of Israel,” said Illouz. “And defending Israel does not mean abandoning the fight for Palestinian rights.”

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns against taking part in the demo in Hamburg. "October 7th stands for the inhumane attack by Hamas terrorists on civilians in Israel. The choice of this date for demonstrations in which the freedom of Palestine and the Intifada is propagated goes beyond pure solidarity with the Palestinians," said Torsten Voß, head of the Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “It is a sign that you approve and support the killing and mistreatment of defenseless people.”