The Battleground: The Ulm 5 is All of Us

Destabilising German Democracy
William Noah Glucroft
In an infamous prison complex outside Stuttgart, Germany’s constitutional credibility is on trial.

Dubbed the Ulm 5 after the southern German city where the group’s alleged crimes took place, five defendants stand accused of trespassing and property damage.

These are relatively low-level charges, but against a high-value target: the local offices of Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.

In 2024, Elbit Systems posted total revenue of more than $6 billion. Germany and other European countries are among the company’s proud partners and major customers. It’s the kind of collaboration that helps explain why the EU is unlikely to ever suspend its Association Agreement with Israel; both sides have too much to lose.

That the Ulm 5 defendants had the chutzpah to contest this powerful and profitable status quo makes them, in the eyes of state prosecutors, more than mere mischief-makers, but a politically motivated organised crime syndicate.

They are pursuing the case under Section 129 of Germany’s criminal code, which means the state can take extraordinary measures to detain the suspects, try them collectively, and, if convicted, impose harsher sentences.

In turning to this legal mechanism, the prosecution looks to be adopting a juridical corollary to Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine. Yet even a layperson’s reading of the relevant code reveals how flimsy the claim is…

Full article – The Battleground – May 5, 2026