The recent court ruling in the case of Ahmad Othman, a Palestinian-German activist in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), shows that the German state’s repression isn’t just brutal – at times it is also remarkably incompetent in its attempt to disregard the laws it claims to uphold.
Ahmad, who was active in the group Palästina Solidarität Duisburg (PSDU), – which was banned by the Ministry of Interior in May 2024 – had been working as a technician for the federal state of NRW.
However, after PDSU was banned, his employer tried to fire him precisely because of this political activism. Yet despite having hired a law firm with 60 lawyers at its disposal, the state of NRW could not convince the court of the lawfulness of Ahmad’s firing in the first or second instance.
In April 2025, the Dortmund Labour Court ruled his first dismissal invalid. NRW then issued a second, nearly identical termination – which a court also struck down on 26 March 2026.
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In the latest hearing, NRW couldn’t provide a single example of misconduct or prove that Othman posed any security risk. Desperate, they shifted to pure political persecution: calling the slogan “From the river to the sea” a Hamas symbol (despite court rulings to the contrary), and even threatening criminal charges for using a red triangle or the word “nonsense” about CDU minister Herbert Reul. However, as in the first instance the judge wasn’t convinced.
The victory came after two years of state efforts to wear Ahmad down. From non-compliance with deadlines to providing false reasons for the termination to the Agentur für Arbeit, leading to a benefits block, and to refusing to pay back his full salary after he won the first instance by placing him deliberately in another tax category with substantially lower pay: NRW tried to pull all the registers to unlawfully punish the activist.
But the intimidation did not stop at the courthouse door. After the won case on March 26, as Ahmad thanked supporters, around five police officers stormed into the crowd. With batons drawn, they dragged him away – claiming his chant “Yallah Intifada” might constitute a crime and thus absurdly stated they need to verify his identity.
Despite multiple and prolonged state attempts at intimidation and deterrence of his surroundings, the activist stayed joyful, optimistic and strong. After winning against his employer, Ahmad is now filing criminal complaints against the police officers with his lawyers. The fight continues.
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