Demonstrators in Berlin brandish Turkish and Palestinian flags as they burn an Israeli flag during a 2017 protest. Photo: Jüdisches Forum für Demokratie und gegen Antisemitismus.

Politicians in Berlin are calling for an outright ban on this year’s “Al Quds Day” March and rally currently scheduled to take place in the German capital on May 8.

Sponsored by the Iranian regime, the annual event calling for Israel’s destruction takes place in Tehran and several other cities, prominently featuring the flag of Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy Shi’a terrorist organization in Lebanon, which is banned in Germany and other European nations.

Last year’s event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the previous year more than 2,000 anti-Israel demonstrators gathered to chant antisemitic and anti-Zionist slogans near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. A Jewish counter-demonstrator was told by one of the rally’s organizers that “Hitler needs to come back and kill the rest of the Jews.”

On Monday, a leader of the liberal FDP Party in the Berlin Senate called for an outright ban on this year’s planned Al Quds Day rally.

Holger Krestel — the FDP’s spokesperson on the protection of the constitution — urged senators to “use all legal means to prevent this shameful event.”

In the past, successive administrations have argued that a ban on the march in Berlin would likely be illegal. According to a spokesperson for Andreas Geisel — a senator from the center-left SPD Party who previously described the march as “one of the most disgusting antisemitic events” — the city administration considers the Al Quds march “very carefully” every year.

“Antisemitism has no place in our free and tolerant city,” the SPD spokesperson told the Berliner Morgenpost, without commenting on whether a ban would be forthcoming this year.