Berlin’s immigration authorities are moving to deport four young foreign residents on allegations related to participation in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, an unprecedented move that raises serious concerns over civil liberties in Germany.
The deportation orders, issued under German migration law, were made amid political pressure and over internal objections from the head of the state of Berlin’s immigration agency.
The internal strife arose because three of those targeted for deportation are citizens of European Union member states who normally enjoy freedom of movement between E.U. countries. None of the four has been convicted of any crimes.
“What we’re seeing here is straight out of the far right’s playbook,” said Alexander Gorski, a lawyer representing two of the protesters. “You can see it in the U.S. and Germany, too: Political dissent is silenced by targeting the migration status of protesters.”
The slogan “From the river to the Sea” was “outlawed” by a decree from the interior ministry designating it as a symbol of Hamas. Think of this act like Trump banning DEI. There is no legal consensus on it and various courts have upheld the slogan to be a legitimate expression und the constitutionally protected freedom of speech in Germany.
This is executive order authoritarian style action and entirely different from democratic proceedings, where the parliament passes a law in accordance with the constitution, which then is interpreted by courts and finally enforced by the executive.
Here the legislative and judiciary are cut out.
Hey Saleh, you’re modding /c/nahost and therefore know about the FU attack, which is the real issue here. This is not about someone shouting “From the river to the sea”, this is about a violent group of Hamas supporters causing 100.000€ of property damage. There is no country in the world that wouldn’t kick out foreigners doing that.
https://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2024/fup_24_206-versuchte-besetzung/index.html
https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/bildung/fu-berlin-uni-beschaeftigte-schildern-attacken-durch-pro-palaestina-aktivisten-a-39d1d797-b2c5-47cf-8b5b-9914cfdd7408
You know that occupations of universities have a long history in Germany and are both reveered in hindsight and usually tolerated at their time, like the previous occupation of HU in 2017 for Andrej Holm. https://www.hu-berlin.de/de/pr/nachrichten/archiv/nr1701/nr_170131_00
Back then nobody was threatened with deportation.
This is not normal, also not for Germany. Again there is no specific criminal convictions of the people threatened now.
I think the issue is not a peaceful occupation. Those are happening quite frequently, but the massive destruction they did. I participated in some occupations during my studies and that went without any damage. People did occupy a lecture hall or some university building, but left it without doing six-figure damages or threatening employees. That was quite a different thing here and therefore is handled differently.
There were previous peaceful protest camps on the campus grounds, which are public space. Those got violently evicted.
Then months later people escalated to more destructive occupations as a response to the initial violent escalation by the University and Police.
Somebody pointed out that in Berlin the third University TU, did not face such escalations, as the University Director chose to talk with people rather than have them beaten up by police. Students even came to defend her, when the racist and mysogynist government of Berlin pushed for her to be fired for having liked a post that criticized Israels conduct from a legally sound perspective.
What makes you think that the state government of Berlin is mysogynist and racist?
@Saleh @Obelix
The mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, has demanded that police should release the names of minors, who were suspected of criminal activity around new years eve 2023, so that people could determine by their names, whether they are “real Germans” as in German by blood, or whether they are “merely” German citizens.
As for mysogony:
https://novaramedia.com/2024/11/28/berlin-police-brutalise-women-at-anti-violence-demonstration/
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/5/25/punched-choked-kicked-german-police-crack-down-on-student-protests
https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2024/08/25/pro-palestinian-marchers-tell-of-arbitrary-violence-by-berlin-police/
https://hyphenonline.com/2024/10/04/ava-moayeri-germany-pro-palestine-protest-free-speech-police-arrest-violence/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Vr8rBtWOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Txy6MnoEDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exRIsj73QUQ
https://gewerkschaftliche-linke-berlin.de/erklaerung-zur-polizeigewalt-am-8-maerz-auf-der-demonstration-until-total-liberation-in-berlin/
All of this violence is protected and supported by the government of Berlin.
Bloody hell. I already assumed that something was going wrong in Berlin when I heard what state police is doing with the Adenauer SRP+ but this shows that the problem situation in Berlin is not limited to the state police. Now I’m heavily concerned. TIL that the Berlin state government is mysogynist and racist.
#BerlinCorruption
@Saleh
It still is their choice that they willingly started that violence. And let’s be honest: If you want to protest against the war or even maybe try to find a way to find a way for peace in the middle east, violent destruction of a german university building is not the way
FU Berlin is cooperating with Israeli Universities and by this cooperation making itself willfully complicit in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity For instance the FU Berlin funnels exchange students to participate in land stealing by an exchange program with the “Hebrew University”, who then houses these students in illegal settlements. Furthermore Israeli Universities are not merely educating people or providing research. They also directly run logistics and computer systems for the IDF, which makes them direct participants in war crimes such as the murder of women and children.
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-complicity-of-israeli-academia
https://bds-fu.de/de/report/#strategic-partnership-with-hebrew-university-of-jerusalem
As such pushing for an end of FU complicity in Israeli crimes is similar to demanding sanctions against military research cooperation with Russia. FU Berlin and other German universities are complicit and in support of Israel crimes. A full boycott would be in accordance with their obligations under international law, as was reaffirmed by the ICJ in The Hague with their “Advisory opinion” regarding the illegal occupation and subjugation of Palestinians by Israel.
If you see someone murdering another person and you would have the means to stop it, would it not be your duty to try? Instead you are condemning the people that fought back against the supporters of mass murder, after the supporters of mass murder started beating them up when they tried to raise their concerns peacefully. Maybe it helps to replace Israel with Trump or with Russia in thinking about these situations. Would you accept disruptive protests if FU or any other German university would send exchange students to a Russian University built in occupied Ukraine?