What’s especially unfortunate is that calling it a protest isn’t primarily a matter of downplaying things—it’s to miss the key, dramatic point: Their line of defense is not “we didn’t do it” or “you can’t prove it” or “we didn’t intend for things to go as they did”. Instead, what they say is: “We did it all, and we did it on purpose. The equipment was intended for a genocide, the German government has been allowing or even supporting it, protests did not help, therefore we were justified under German law to destroy part of these systems.” In order to judge whether this was indeed an act of legitimate defense of a third party (Nothilfe), the court may be forced to officially judge whether Israel has been conducting a genocide and whether the German government has been inactive or even complicit in it.
What’s especially unfortunate is that calling it a protest isn’t primarily a matter of downplaying things—it’s to miss the key, dramatic point: Their line of defense is not “we didn’t do it” or “you can’t prove it” or “we didn’t intend for things to go as they did”. Instead, what they say is: “We did it all, and we did it on purpose. The equipment was intended for a genocide, the German government has been allowing or even supporting it, protests did not help, therefore we were justified under German law to destroy part of these systems.” In order to judge whether this was indeed an act of legitimate defense of a third party (Nothilfe), the court may be forced to officially judge whether Israel has been conducting a genocide and whether the German government has been inactive or even complicit in it.
https://www.kontextwochenzeitung.de/gesellschaft/791/unrecht-und-strafe-10921.html
https://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/details/rechtfertigender-notstand-prozessbeginn-gegen-die-ulm-5-in-stuttgart-stammheim-interview-mit-ra-duesberg