German court: Holocaust memorial can deny entry to visitors wearing keffiyehs

Judges determined that the woman’s intent—protesting what she viewed as the memorial’s “one-sided support” for Israeli policies—risked unsettling Jewish visitors.

By JNS Staff
A German court has ruled that the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial may lawfully refuse entry to visitors wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, upholding the site’s right to restrict political messaging on its grounds.

The Higher Administrative Court of Thuringia issued its decision on Wednesday after a woman challenged the memorial’s refusal to admit her to an April ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, AFP reported.

She had worn the keffiyeh and later sought court approval to attend another commemorative event this week while wearing the scarf.

Judges determined that the woman’s intent—protesting what she viewed as the memorial’s “one-sided support” for Israeli policies—risked unsettling Jewish visitors. “It is unquestionable that this would endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site,” the court said. Her right to free expression, it added, was outweighed by the memorial’s “interest in upholding the purpose of the institution.”

An internal Buchenwald document leaked last month described the keffiyeh as “closely associated with efforts to destroy the state of Israel,” though memorial director Jens-Christian Wagner later called some wording in the document “mistaken.”

Wagner emphasized that the keffiyeh is not banned outright but could be restricted if used to relativize Nazi crimes, reported AFP.

Buchenwald, near Weimar, held around 340,000 prisoners during World War II. Some 56,000 died there, with an additional 20,000 perishing in its Mittelbau-Dora annex, where inmates were forced to produce rockets.