September 22, 2025
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Sign the petition! British academic is facing a criminal charge in Berlin for expressing solidarity with Palestinians

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27 January 2025

Dror Dayan, an Israeli-born academic with German citizenship who teaches at John Moores University in Liverpool, is facing a criminal charge in Berlin for allegedly expressing support for terrorism, based on a two-year old social media message. This is a frankly outrageous misuse of the courts and denial of his freedom of speech. The UCU branch at John Moores University has launched the following petition in his support. We hope you will consider endorsing it.

Solidarity with Dr. Dror Dayan and the Palestine solidarity movement in Germany

The Issue

On 27 January 2025, Dr Dror Dayan, a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University and a member of UCU, will stand trial in Berlin accused of terrorist propaganda for “using terrorist and anti-constitutional symbols” after publishing a tweet in 2023 containing the slogan “From the “river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In his tweet, Dr Dayan, who is Jewish, criticized plans by German officials to equate the prosecution of the slogan with that of Nazi symbols. This is another dangerous step in the trivialization of the Holocaust and Nazi crimes in Germany, the dehumanization and criminalization of Palestine solidarity and the stifling of dissent and free speech.

As UCU members, trade unionists and supporters, we stand in solidarity with Dr Dayan and all those in Germany who oppose the genocide in Gaza and the repression of their own government. We have seen Germany ban conferences and demonstrations, send police forces to brutally attack protesting students on campus or migrant youth on the streets, and wage a relentless war at home against any sign of solidarity with the Palestinians, while at the same time supporting Israel through arms trade, legal support at the ICC, academic and economic cooperation and much more. Germany is gradually becoming an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza.

As a progressive trade union committed to human rights, we also call on all German trade unions, especially our partner union the GEW, to break their shameful silence and speak out against this crackdown on fundamental rights and freedom of expression. Germany’s past has taught us all too well that history does not look kindly on those who remain silent in the face of atrocities and injustice.

To our colleagues in Gaza whose universities have been destroyed by Israeli bombs, to every Palestinian in Gaza, in Palestine or in the Diaspora, and to every human being who has raised their voice against this genocide, we say: we stand with you, today and tomorrow. Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.Report a policy violation

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