Berlin Left Party faces allegations after MP posed with PFLP supporter and organized crime figure at election party

Following the Left Party's electoral victory in Berlin, the party faces severe allegations concerning antisemitism and contacts with criminals.

Background

Ferat Koçak, a Left Party member of the German Bundestag representing Berlin-Neukölln, has gone silent. On Monday, he wrote on his social media channels that he needed time to dispel doubts. Since then, there has been radio silence—except within the Left Party, where alarm bells are ringing.

On Sunday at 6 PM, everything had looked promising for the Left Party. It had won 25.7 percent of the vote in Berlin, and images of jubilant lead candidate Elif Eralp were broadcast across all channels.

Yet that same evening, other images began circulating. These showed two guests at the election party of the Neukölln district association:

• Issa Remmo, the head of a family clan whose members have faced trial for various crimes, including jewel theft, money laundering, and burglaries.
• Ibrahim Ibrahim, who promotes the left-wing terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and called the killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a "martyr hero," expressing his "respect."

Left Party MP Ferat Koçak posed at the party with Ibrahim, who was wearing a shirt reading "See you in Palestine." His Neukölln colleague and newly elected MP Vanessa "Vedi" Emde did the same.

Political Fallout

These images could now jeopardize the first Left Party-led government in Berlin. The photos with Ibrahim, in particular, represent a larger problem. They provide fodder for a right-wing campaign—from the AfD to the Springer publishing house—that portrays Berlin as on the verge of a caliphate.

CSU leader Markus Söder has threatened to cut financial aid to Berlin if the Left Party enters government. He had previously called similar measures for an AfD-governed Saxony-Anhalt "absurd."

On the left, some dismiss the uproar as manufactured, believing the goal is to prevent a Red-Green-Red coalition and thus block the expropriation of large real estate companies.

However, even Left Party members acknowledge that the party has an antisemitism problem. They fear that some radicals within the party are sabotaging a potential Left Party-led government.

"I've had enough," wrote former Bundestag Vice President Petra Pau publicly to Koçak. "As a member of the Bundestag, you have a responsibility. I can no longer believe in naivety." Thuringian Left Party MP Katharina König-Preuss demanded that Koçak resign his mandate, stating he does not represent credible anti-fascism and neglects substantive work.

The Development of Berlin's Left Party

To understand the current allegations, it is worth examining the development of Berlin's Left Party. Does the party have an antisemitism problem?

Growth in Neukölln

The Left Party in Berlin has grown enormously over the past year and a half. The number of members in the Neukölln district association alone has tripled. Most new members are young people, many of whom were politicized by the Gaza war.

In autumn 2024, a clash occurred at a state party conference: after a initially failed resolution against antisemitism, leading Left Party figures such as Klaus Lederer and Elke Breitenbach left the hall—and later the party. The pro-Palestinian faction within the party did not retreat afterward. The loudest voices are in the Neukölln Left Party association.

This movement includes the state working group (LAG) Palestine Solidarity and the Trotskyist group Marx21. The latter declared in 2023 that "Zionist" Israel must be "destroyed in the course of an anti-imperialist, revolutionary uprising across the entire region."

According to members of the Neukölln district association, Palestine is the only political issue for these individuals. How strong this faction actually is remains unclear. Many comrades in Neukölln say that radical Palestine solidarity activists do not constitute a majority in the district association, which has 3,000 members.

However, they ultimately shape the public image. Their representatives are among those in the party who view government participation critically—and would not be unhappy if a coalition with the SPD and Greens failed to materialize.

Questionable Alliances

Since the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, the Neukölln district association has taken radical positions and often clashed with the rest of the state association.

After the murders of nearly 1,200 Israelis and the taking of approximately 250 hostages, the first statement from the Left Party Neukölln district faction criticized a "massive restriction of assembly rights" for pro-Palestinian protests. Three days later, the district association issued a more balanced statement, condemning "the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israel" while also condemning "the Israeli bombings" of Gaza and its blockade. Ferat Koçak presented the statement on Instagram.

As the Israeli military escalated operations in Gaza and committed war crimes, the Neukölln Left Party became more one-sided in its stance—and entered questionable alliances. One figure appeared repeatedly: Ibrahim Ibrahim, the guest at the election party.

Who Is Ibrahim Ibrahim?

Ibrahim has been at the forefront of demonstrations for years. He gives speeches and issues statements for the "United Palestinian National Committee," which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution views as an umbrella organization for Hamas supporters and the PFLP in Berlin. The PFLP was involved in the October 7 massacres. In 1977, the group hijacked the Lufthansa aircraft "Landshut." It was classified as a terrorist organization by the EU in 2002. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the PFLP works "closely" with Hamas supporters in Berlin and serves as a "hinge function" to Islamists.

Ibrahim posts on Facebook images of a man in a keffiyeh with a machine gun and PFLP logo, accompanied by the text: "All guns against the enemy, glory to the freedom fighters." In a speech at a demonstration in Berlin in April 2025, he praised "the martyrs who gave their lives so that this cause remains alive until the Al-Aqsa Mosque is liberated and all of Palestine is free 'from the river to the sea.'"

Links to the Left Party

The Neukölln Left Party has not kept its distance from Ibrahim and his organization. On the contrary, in August 2025, it co-hosted a joint "neighborhood event" for Palestine with the Palestinian National Committee. According to the Tagesspiegel, Ibrahim reportedly declared there: "Their resistance is our resistance."

Weeks earlier, Koçak and Ibrahim demonstrated together in front of Neukölln City Hall. Later, Ahmed Abed, the Left Party's mayoral candidate for Neukölln, also joined—who made headlines for calling the mayor of Neukölln's Israeli sister city Bat Yam, a party colleague of Netanyahu, a "genocidaire" during his visit to city hall.

Members of other Berlin district associations also appear with Ibrahim at Palestine demonstrations and give speeches. Two of them are now entering the state parliament. A third is Hannah Bruns, a spokesperson for the state working group Palestine Solidarity, who advocates for "armed resistance" for Palestine. At a demonstration, she stated that the liberation of Palestine ends "when Tel Aviv is again in the hands of Palestine."

Shortly before the election in early September, Ibrahim promoted an event with four Neukölln Left Party politicians, organized by the Arab-Palestinian Council for Democratic Participation.

Koçak's Response

Ibrahim thus had extensive contacts with the Neukölln Left Party—yet Ferat Koçak claimed not to have recognized him during the selfie on election night.

Koçak declined to comment to the taz. Ibrahim Ibrahim also did not respond to an inquiry. Shortly after the election, however, Ibrahim conveyed his organization's "heartfelt congratulations" to the Left Party on Facebook.

"I am proud that we made a clear decision last year to support the Left Party," he wrote. With regard to "the Palestinian question," he said, the Palestinian and Arab community had been mobilized for the Left Party. In the summer, Ibrahim had posted a voting recommendation on Facebook for Ahmed Abed, the Neukölln mayoral candidate, expressing "full support of the Arab workers' movement in Berlin." He did the same for Left Party candidate Martha Kleedörfer from Mitte—who also called the Bat Yam mayor a "fascist."

Official Response

Neukölln Left Party chairwoman Jorinde Schulz told the taz that no other organizations were involved in the election campaign. When asked how she evaluates the joint appearances of Left Party members with Ibrahim, she responded that the party condemns war crimes, regardless of who commits them. However, she added: "The spread of guilt-by-association accusations in political debate we see as an expression of an authoritarian shift." This does not sound like a distancing.

The Ramsis Kilani Case

Another personnel matter has made headlines in recent years concerning the Neukölln Left Party: Ramsis Kilani. In an internal chat after October 7, the activist reportedly wrote: "I think it will take more than 'a murder of Israelis.'" Kilani was expelled from the Left Party in 2024, but the Neukölln district association "sharply" criticized his expulsion, stating that the party was bowing to a "right-wing smear campaign" and "reasons of state." The statement contained no criticism of Kilani's remarks.

Authors: Anne Fromm and Konrad Litschko, Berlin