The country’s so-called political centre has licensed a new era of authoritarianism – to the AfD’s delight, says Hanno Hauenstein, a Berlin-based journalist

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.

  • needanke@feddit.orgEnglish
    19·
    1 day ago

    That was a thing that happened at the protest in general. The state was not able to prove any of the now deported committed any crimes though (it even says so in your source and the part you quoted was about the protests in general, not the specific people about to be deported). That is one of the mayor reasons it is so problematic, just skipping presumption of innocence and letting the executive punish someone for an alleged crime without having to prove that crime.

    Plus Welt is Springer media, so a pretty unreliable source.

    Source

    the intercept:

    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.