Germany advances bill criminalizing denial of Israel's right to exist

Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, has advanced draft legislation that would make the public denial of Israel's right to exist a criminal offense, AzerNEWS reports.

The proposed legislation has now been forwarded to the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, where it must complete the legislative process before it can become law.

Under the proposal, anyone who publicly or at a gathering denies the right of the State of Israel to exist, or calls for its elimination, would face punishment. In legal terms, this means Germany is expanding Section 130 StGB (its criminal code) beyond Holocaust denial to include existential denial of Israel.

If adopted in its current form, the offense would carry a maximum prison sentence of up to five years.

According to the bill’s justification, existing criminal provisions (such as incitement of hatred, approval of criminal acts, or the use of symbols of terrorist organizations) currently apply only in individual cases and are insufficient.