German Holocaust memorial allowed to bar people wearing keffiyeh

A Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, a German court has ruled.

It rejected a request from a woman, who intended to take a stand against current Israeli policies, to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing a keffiyeh.

The woman was turned away when she attempted to attend a commemorative event marking the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation in April while wearing the scarf, the memorial confirmed. It told Die Welt newspaper its decision was related to the context in which it was worn.

She then petitioned the higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia to allow her to return to the site for another commemorative event this week, again while wearing a keffiyeh.

The court found that the memorial was within its rights to deny her entry, referring to the woman's declared aim of "sending a political message against what she saw as the [memorial's] one-sided support for the policies of the Israeli government".

"It is unquestionable that this would endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site," the court said.

The woman's right to freedom of expression was outweighed by the memorial's "interest in upholding the purpose of the institution", it added.

Germany, still trying to atone for the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust, has long been one of Israel's staunchest allies.

However, in recent months it has sharpened its criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz announcing this month that no more licences would be granted for arms exports that could be used to attack Gaza.

The Buchenwald memorial faced criticism last month when an internal document was leaked, which described the keffiyeh as "closely associated with efforts to destroy the state of Israel".

The director of the memorial, Jens-Christian Wagner, has since said the document contained "mistakes" and would have to be reworked.

On the question of the keffiyeh, he told the NDR broadcaster last month that it was not in itself "a forbidden symbol" at the memorial.

"However, when it is used together with other symbols ... to relativise Nazi crimes, then we would ask people to remove those symbols," he said.

About 340,000 prisoners, including Jews, Roma and Soviets, passed through Buchenwald and its annexe Mittelbau-Dora, both near the German city of Weimar.

About 56,000 people lost their lives at Buchenwald – some executed, others starved or worked to death – and a further 20,000 died in Mittelbau-Dora, where inmates worked on the Nazis' V1 and V2 rockets.