On a crowded shuttle in Frankfurt Airport.
Discussion
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The passport control agent told me I should grow my moustache back.
@evan it was a pretty good moustache
I just got a "Free Palestine!" from the coffee bar clerk who saw my flag pin. That felt pretty good. Is the Palestine flag illegal in Germany?
UPDATE: lots of discussion on this. Apparently it's not technically illegal but cops hassle people at protests who have visible signals like flags. IANAGL, TINGLA.
@evan the Palestine flag was never, to my knowledge, illegal in Germany. You're thinking of German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch ) Section 86a, deemed to ban symbols of what the Federal Constitutional Court declares terrorist organizations. Thus, the flags of Hamas, PFLP, and Hezbollah are so classified, but not the Palestine one.
(Disclaimer: Not an expert, and I've relied on secondary sources in English, not primary ones auf Deutsch.)
@evan It isn't illegal in Germany. What's your source for that?
Search for "Palestine flag Germany arrest" and you can find quite a few examples. It seems to happen mostly at protests, though, and rarely if ever at airport coffee bars.
@evan Most probably not legally forbidden but will attract unwanted attention by the police forces and will try to find any excuse to bother and detain you. @jwildeboer
@evan Palestine flag is not and has not been banned. Hamas flag is.
@evan I'm not aware of any point in time when it was illegal in Germany.
@evan I assume you're taking the train going forward?
If so, don't forget to check: https://www.belgiantrain.be/en/travel-info/train-network-travel-info/strike
(and maybe hackertrain.org if there's any route going through Frankfurt today)