WOMAN GLUED HER HAND TO A GERMAN STREET OVER ISRAEL ARMS
A woman in Germany glued her hand to a cobblestone street in a protest against an arms factory tied to weapons exports to Israel, and a 13-second clip of it spread online. Police then had to dissolve the glue to free her.
The video landed on The World Watch, which titled it as a woman cementing her hand to the pavement in the name of ending genocide in Palestine. The page pulled about 12,000 views and 58 likes.
Kind Joe filled in the details. It described a woman in a blue top with blonde braids, her right hand attached to the cobblestones, as police worked on it with solvent and tools. The outlet said the original video was posted on X on July 6, 2026.
Technically, the glue was doing the job the cement was credited with. Either way, she was not going anywhere quickly.
Comment section confusion
Viewers on The World Watch were not sure what they were watching. One commenter asked whether the clip had anything to do with Palestine at all and demanded the original source.
Another commenter said the woman chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Free, free Gaza.” A third said they had tracked down her own post and that it described “a protest against an arms factory, in connection with German arms shipments to Israel.”
The page collected 30 comments, many of them hostile and insulting toward her.
Same tactic, bigger stage
Gluing hands to Berlin streets turned out to be part of a wider pattern. On April 10, 2026, seven activists glued their hands to the ground outside a Rheinmetall facility in the city’s Wedding district, according to Middle East Monitor, citing Anadolu. Police used special solvents to dissolve the glue, and protesters were detained. The activists chanted “Freedom for Palestine,” “Stop the genocide” and “Israel bombs, Germany finances.”
An activist named Lana told Anadolu: “Rheinmetall earns billions with the killing of people. And the federal government allows it.”
On July 9, 2026, police briefly detained around 60 protesters at a Rheinmetall facility in Wedding and arrested two on suspicion of assaulting officers, Roya News reported.
The group Peacefully Against Genocide organized a week of Berlin actions aimed at German support for Israel and Rheinmetall’s arms trade with Israel, The Berliner reported. Greta Thunberg joined in.
“We have the duty to end our complicity in genocide and mass killings. And that’s what we are doing today,” Thunberg said on Instagram about the July 13 protest.
On July 13, 2026, about 40 activists blocked the entrance to Rheinmetall’s Pariser Platz office in Berlin. Police removed 39 demonstrators, including Thunberg.
The glue came out again on October 20, 2026. Deutsche Welle reported that pro-Palestinian protesters glued themselves in front of the Wedding facility, which DW said began arms production in June 2026 and makes artillery-shell casings and parts for kamikaze drones, citing broadcaster RBB.
Police were called at 5:30 a.m. A police spokeswoman told dpa, in a report carried by Yahoo News, that up to 90 officers were deployed to deal with 11 protesters, nine of whom had reportedly glued themselves down.
Peacefully Against Genocide claimed responsibility and said 70 people took part overall, with further actions at other German defense plants. Police opened an investigation over alleged coercion and the use of unconstitutional symbols.
