this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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Germany has recently taken a chilling new step, signalling its willingness to use political views as grounds to curb migration. Authorities are now moving to deport foreign nationals for participating in pro-Palestine actions. As I reported this week in the Intercept, four people in Berlin – three EU citizens and one US citizen – are set to be deported over their involvement in demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza. None of the four have been convicted of a crime, and yet the authorities are seeking to simply throw them out of the country.

The accusations against them include aggravated breach of the peace and obstruction of a police arrest. Reports from last year suggest that one of the actions they were alleged to have been involved in included breaking into a university building and threatening people with objects that could have been used as potential weapons.

But the deportation orders go further. They cite a broader list of alleged behaviours: chanting slogans such as “Free Gaza” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, joining road blockades (a tactic frequently used by climate activists), and calling a police officer a “fascist”. Read closely, the real charge appears to be something more basic: protest itself.

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[–] GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Germany repeating the history. Twice.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago

fascism in Germany! now I've heard everything

[–] BigBenis@lemmy.world 21 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

What the actual fuck is going on with humanity?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 1 points 35 minutes ago

Fucking seriously. Just how much of the world has always been a bunch of hateful shits who only needed a bigger asshole to kick things off?

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 11 points 2 hours ago

People who want extreme 'order' are really good at organizing and fund raising, and breaking the law and daring the rest of us to do something about it. People who like making sure everyone has rights and those rights are protected aren't.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 32 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

It really blows my mind. Masha Gessen, Nancy Fraser, Yuval Abraham, Omri Boehm, and also others not mentioned in the article. Who the fuck gave Germany the right to decide who is a good pro-Israel Jew and who is a bad anti-Israel Jew? Germany of all countries, being in the business of labelling Jewish people as acceptable and unacceptable. The fucking nerve on these people.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 hours ago

Germany has public broadcasters, which are controlled by councils made up of representatives of different groups like chourches, unions, enviormental groups and well Jews. That was part of trying to make sure that the Holocaust does not happen again. However the Jewish community in Germany is rather small, due to the Holocaust at about 100k. That group is also unlike American Jews extremly pro Israel. That is why anti zionist Jews are such a problem within Germany. So the Israel lobby works hard to get rid of them.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

and calling a police officer a “fascist”

No, Germany, bad Germany. You've done this twice already, haven't you fucking learned?

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

Why bother with the half measures.

Just take the mask off and send them to the torture prison in El Salvador with all the other baselessly accused and right denied.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The article seems to say very little about the 4 people. What it does say is pretty light on facts about what they were involved in. Were they vistors? Students? Do they live in Germany? Do they work there? Have families there? Some factual context would be nice. And how/when were they arrested?

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 hours ago (6 children)

The author of the article links to their own earlier article in the Intercept that goes in detail: https://theintercept.com/2025/03/31/germany-gaza-protesters-deport/

The only event that tied the four cases together was the allegation that the protesters participated in the university occupation, which involved property damage, and alleged obstruction of an arrest — a so-called de-arrest aimed at blocking a fellow protesters’ detention. None of the protesters are accused of any particular acts of vandalism or the de-arrest at the university. Instead, the deportation order cites the suspicion that they took part in a coordinated group action. (The Free University told The Intercept it had no knowledge of the deportation orders.)

Some of the allegations are minor. Two, for example, are accused of calling a police officer “fascist” — insulting an officer, which is a crime. Three are accused of demonstrating with groups chanting slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine Will be Free” — which was outlawed last year in Germany — and “free Palestine.” Authorities also claim all four shouted antisemitic or anti-Israel slogans, though none are specified.

Two are accused of grabbing an officers’ or another protesters’ arm in an attempt to stop arrests at the train station sit-in.

O’Brien, one of the Irish citizens, is the only one of the four whose deportation order included a charge – the accusation that he called a police officer a “fascist” – that has been brought before a criminal court in Berlin, where he was acquitted.

All four are accused, without evidence, of supporting Hamas, a group Germany has designated as a terrorist organization.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

What kind of fascist world are we living in that "insulting a police officer" can be a crime?

[–] needanke@feddit.org 4 points 3 hours ago

In Germany it is generally a crime to insult anyone.

I think that itself is not bad. What makes it bad is the general tendency of German police to only follow up on that when it affects someone with power (politician, police, etc.). And of course in this case that they punished someone for it while they were not able to prove it in court.

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