Interview Liza

1. How many protests have you been to in 2025?

A lot, I went to one protest every week, sometimes up to 5 in one week.

2. Is it protests you organized or are they just ones you find and you participate in?

It is protests I organize. I am a part of an association in Hamburg that organizes protests, mostly for the Palestinian cause.

3. How do you share information about the protests you organize with people?

We use social media, like Instagram to mobilize people and we can tell how many people are going to come based on the amounts of likes and comments or direct messages we get on a post.

4. Are there any problems you face when organizing a protest?

At the beginning of 2025, we used to have about 5000 or 6000 people joining our protests but later on it dropped to a couple of hundreds and the main issue was the government. To hold a protest, you have to send a plea to the government highlighting the cause and the number of people joining. You have also to specify the location of the protest. At the beginning, the replies would take about two or three days but not longer. However, as the time went by, it became more and more difficult to get a reply from them. Our pleas were starting to get rejected, we were not allowed to protest which is crazy considering we live in a democracy and it is our basic right to get on the streets and protest any cause we like. So we started protesting without having the legal documents to do so.

5. You said at the beginning you had about 5000 people coming to your protests? How did you manage to keep it under control?

So, when you send the plea to the government, you are asked about the amount of people coming and according to that, you need to have a precise amount of security people. These people are part of the protests, they don't work with the government. For example, for the protests that had 5000 people, we had about 60 people in the security team. These people need to have a certain personality, they need to be able to stay calm and not get triggered easily, so we actually have to interview them. They also need to know the law and their rights. We put people at the beginning of the protest, at the sides and in the middle. They are really important because without them we wouldn't be allowed to protest.

6. And how did these 60 people communicate with one another?

We had walkie-talkies but we didn't have enough for 60 people so not everyone had access to a walkie-talkie. We would give one walkie-talkie per small group and the person with the walkie-talkie had the responsibility of communicating any issues happening in their section to the other sections. We also use Whatsapp to share protests.

7. If there is an issue do you communicate it with the protesters?

No, we try and solve it with the security team first. We don't want to scare the protesters, especially knowing a lot of them have never been to a protest before. We only communicate the issue with them if it involves their own safety, for example if the police are being aggressive.

8. Is there any protest that had an impact on you? Whether it is positive or negative.

Yes, and I even remember the exact date, it was on January 6th, 2024. I will never forget this day because it was snowing like crazy, it was very cold, we were all freezing but still a 1000 people attended the protest. Some even had their babies in their arms. I will never forget this moment, it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen at a protest. A negative memory is of course the police hitting us.

9. Was there any situation where you saw a protest that you wanted to attend but you ended up not to for some reason?

I don't know, I think I always managed to attend the protest to the best of my ability. Even if there were no trains or buses, I would take the car to attend. There was nothing that could stop me from protesting.

10. During a protest, when do you feel the most implicated?

When I hear people's voices chanting, I realize that we are not alone in this fight for humanity and that people can be loud. In Germany, protests are often looked at in a negative light, people always say why are you shouting and disturbing, but I think it is the point of protests. We are loud in hopes to reach random people on the streets so they can get to know what is happening and take a stance.

11. How do you describe interactions between different protesters?

I would say they're really kind to each other. They are always willing to help one another even if they don't know them. They take care of each other, they stand with each other if one of them is in trouble with the police. So, yeah, there is a lot of solidarity.

12. When you organize the protests, do you think about all possible problems you could face?

Definitely, I always think of a million things that could go wrong. Whether it is with people from opposite views or with the police.

13. How do you prepare for these problems?

For the problems with the police, we need to know the law by heart. We must know our rights so if they tell us you're not allowed to do this and that we can be like no the law says this. And for people with opposite ideologies, we have to make sure that other protesters don't get triggered and start a fight. We try to follow the laws to the best of our ability, for example, we avoid writing a lot on the banners or only write vague sentences to avoid unnecessary arrests.

14. Any problems you faced during organization?

We had a lot of trouble finding good places to protest at the beginning. We always try to protest in the city center to get as much attention as possible to the cause, but it is very difficult to get approval. However, since our protests are done weekly, once we figured out a place and a route that works for us, we just stuck to it.

15. How do you feel after a protest?

I feel very exhausted to be honest. I feel exhausted but filled with hope.

16. What do you do at the end of the protest?

Most of the time we go to a cafe or a tea shop to calm down. We also advise other protesters to always leave in small groups, in case the police try to arrest someone or some person tries to start a fight.

17. Is it easy to leave after a protest is done?

I mean some buses and trams wouldn't work but we always try to end a protest near a metro station so that it would be easier for people to leave.