Going solo against the hate

Wherever there’s a pro-Palestinian march in Berlin – she’ll be there. There beside the chanting crowds with a sign above her head. RAPE IS NOT RESISTANCE. BELIEVE ISRAELI WOMEN. And in the other hand, another sign with images  of hostages.

The lone figure in the signature red coat has been a presence on social media for almost two years. While some allies have moved on to theatre stages and TV chat shows, Karoline Preisler has stayed put.An unshakable opponent of antisemitism on Germany’s streets.

Speaking to Life, she confesses she has barely slept. “Currently it’s less than four hours a night. I’m rarely home.” She is always listening for the sound of a drum. The protest signal.

Karoline’s day is ordinary. Work, shopping, dinner with her children, but in her handbag always are the folded signs, ready for any demonstration. “Justice must prevail on the streets as well as in the courts,” she says. “I can’t simply accept injustice.”

Some weeks, she is out there for three days; sometimes more. Her stance is quiet, her face expressionless. It’s a look of calm that infuriates her opponents who are shown in states of rabid fury on Instagram and TikTok. The red coat stands out like a warning flare in a sea of hostility, though she is as effective in summer florals.

Karoline’s defiance is rooted in her own history. Born in the former GDR, she grew up in a state that viewed Israel as the enemy. Politically active against the dictatorship, after the Berlin Wall fell, she embraced the democracy “Democrats must support one another,” she says. “Israel is a democracy and shares our values.”

Now 54, she is a lawyer, and a mother of four who had visited the Middle East before, but not Israel. Her support brought an invite.

“Nothing could have prepared me for I saw and experienced,” she recalls. “The constant threat of rocket attacks, meetings with hostage families, Nova.”

Karoline also met with President Herzog and his wife, Michal as well as Israelis who recognised her from Facebook and wanted selfies with the woman in red who sees their pain and wants it to stop.

“My picture is now more complete,” she says. “I think constantly of the women — mothers, daughters, sisters — of the murdered and kidnapped. October 7 is a trauma.”

Karoline describes the ideology she confronts in Germany as a cult moving forward in familiar stages. “First the Jews, then the Druze, Yazidis, Christians, women, professors with different opinions… We saw these plans in the Nazi era. While we teach our children love and compassion, they teach theirs to become martyrs. They call it criticism of Israel or capitalism, but it’s always about the extermination of Jews.”

Karoline’s activism has a cost. She no longer goes to restaurants or shops with her children. “It’s dangerous. I get recognised, spat on, followed, insulted. Hamas supporters targeted me in May last year. I was severely injured in my shoulder. The perpetrator was proud of it.” Fortunately she is not alone. There is support from the police who surround her at protests, from Jewish communities, Druze, Yazidis, Iranian exiles, Christians, liberal Muslims, friends around the world and strangers who greet her on the street. “I attend marches because others can’t. Everyone has their place in society. Mine is on the barricades.”

Her youngest daughter is 15, and Karoline often imagines what it would be like if she never came home from a festival. “What the hostage families have gone through, are going through still is unbearable.”

With such strident views, it’s no surprise she is also an author. Her first book Enduring Democracy! On Arguing in a Society of Outrage published in 2021 will be followed in November by Our Freedom which traces her journey to Israel and explores the dangers posed by Islamism and left-wing extremism. “If we are serious about feminism, we must oppose backward ideologies,” she says. “All our values are at stake. Our children’s futures. There will be a better future; I am fighting hard for that.”.

Karoline speaks warmly about her connection to Israel. The culture of Jerusalem, the dependable  people in the north, the women from WIZO and also Philosophy Professor Arie Kizel at Haifa university who focuses on the education of children.”

She lights up when she talks about the art scene the fashion, and her friend’s silk flower shop on Geula Street in Tel Aviv. But it is the memories of October 7 that haunt her most deeply. “Anyone who visits Nova will never forget it. I thought of Shani Louk, Gal Abdusch, Rom Braslavsky. Those are just three stories. October 7 will change the world forever.”

With such passionate views, how does she stand in silence before a baying crowd, confronting hate with only a sign? Karoline pauses, then checks the  time. She has somewhere to be. She picks up her handbag.