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.”
Germany, no…
If those EU citizens take it to EU court they’d probably win very easily. Can’t just take away freedom of movement, one of the tenets of the Union, without any due process. Seriously fuck the German politicians who pressured for this. Guess fascism is making a return, didn’t even need the AfD for that.
I have some notes on that. 3 of the 4 are EU citizens, that makes deportations highly complicated. I also can’t find another source,
and the intercept has a history of pushing some shady things.Something feels off.The financial times and the Irish times have since picked it up.
although this article is republished from the Intercept, here’s some info about the author:
Hanno Hauenstein is a Berlin-based independent journalist and author. His work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Intercept, and Berliner Zeitung.
They are naming the people being deported, maybe one of our German friends can dig up some German articles with their names?
The four people slated for deportation, Cooper Longbottom, Kasia Wlaszczyk, Shane O’Brien, and Roberta Murray, are citizens of, respectively, the U.S., Poland, and in the latter two cases Ireland.
I searched for German articles about this, but found none. However, the three parties expected to form the next government –the SPD, the CDU and its Bavarian sibling, the CSU– are considering to weaponize migration background against “sponsors of terror, antisemites and extremists”, which could be construed to include some peaceful critics of the Israeli government and military and their actions and plans.
Thanks. It is possible the American student contacted TheIntercept first. If TheIntercept is the first source then German media will likely pick up the story soon.
I also searched for the lawyer
“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.”
Apparently Alexander Gorski is the same person who overturned Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s ban from Germany which does lend a lot of credibility unless TheIntercept is straight up making up quotes from people out of thin air.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) announced in a social media post on Tuesday that it, along with lawyer Alexander Gorski and the European Legal Support Centre, had successfully challenged the travel ban imposed on Abu Sitta by Germany.
Good call. I’ve tried searching for their namens and some other related keywords in german but couldn’t find any secondary sources. Only two other newssites that basically copied the intecept verbatim. So for now I wouldn’t believe it
The first thing I do when negative news about Israel is published is question the source as well. Israel and Germany would never violate international law.
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Nope I just thought it was wird that no other oulet was reporting in this. Since then they have picked up the story and got confirmation on the story indepentanly. But it was weird that something of this magnitude wasn’t picked up by anyone immeadeatly. I also would have believed it if the intercept linked to some sources but they didn’t. Probably because there were none that were public ally accessible. It sometimes happens that newsstorys get out that are false so I’ve made it a rule of mine to not trust story’s of significant magnitude when there is only one source.
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For me personally I can say that I do not read the intercept often enough to have a grasp on how reliable they are. So the publishers name and it’s associated clout alone wasn’t enough for me to believe the story’s content. If you are more familiar with them then maybe that’s why our initial reactions to the story were different. Imho it’s ok to focus on a storys credibility first before discusing it’s content. Even if the contents message transports the right message. In hindsight it was bad of couse but hindsight is 20/20. Anyone who down votes this just because it may be false is overreacting though since it’s understandable that the intercept couldn’t link to any external sources here.
Yeah nothing in the taz - Germanys biggest left wing newspaper. Nothing in the Zeit and nothing in Tagespiegel (Berlin Newspaper) either.
Then it must be fake news and the >1000 people that got killed since the end of the ceasefire and the deliberate mass starvation of the people in Gaza who have to survive on a bowl of rice per day, all that isn’t happening right?
Because I don’t see any news about that at all by our oh so holy liberal left wing academic journalists. The bubble you live in is pathetic, don’t make it sound like all of us in Germany are as bigoted and blind to the amount of suffering our political and media elites are causing to the Palestinians through constant dehumanization and outright support of the genocide against them. I hate to live in the same country as people like you.
I am sorry you cannot see the difference between an article that has not been corroborated and people claiming there is no genocide in Gaza.
Heart. You’ve got it. It’s in the right place.
If I may offer my perspective-
My natural response here is “wow thank you for doing the legwork, maybe a German article will be posted later tonight, let’s check back“
Thanks! Tough to do it sometimes but I don’t want this to become like Reddit or leave the narrative to people who dismiss anything they don’t like to hear as fake news. It’s enough that Trump made this a thing, I don’t think we need it here, especially in this case where imo there was never any evidence for this being fake news and now there’s indeed more articles.
Hey, you didn’t happen to search this again today did you? Just curious, thank you!
Hi, a bunch of other newspapers have now reported this. They have independently verified it, including with the courts. Ex: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/nach-beteiligung-an-palastina-protesten-in-berlin-drei-eu-burgern-und-einem-studenten-aus-den-usa-droht-ausweisung-13468543.html
Laut der Gerichtssprecherin hat das LEA den drei EU-Bürgern attestiert, sie seien eine „gegenwärtige Gefahr für die öffentliche Sicherheit und Ordnung“. Gestützt werde dies auf mehrere Strafverfahren mit Bezug zum Nahostkonflikt.
Dabei gehe es um Widerstand gegen Vollzugsbeamte nach Auflösung von Demonstrationen, Beleidigung, besonders schwerer Landfriedensbruch und die Verwendung von Kennzeichen terroristischer Organisationen, darunter auch der Spruch „From the River to the Sea“. Alle Personen seien, so der Vorwurf der Ausländerbehörde, Mitglieder einer gewaltbereiten Gruppe der propalästinensischen Szene, sagte die Gerichtssprecherin.
What shady stuff have they published in the past? I’ve generally found their coverage good and they often cover stories like this that other mainstream sources won’t.
You are right, I thought that Greenwald was still involved, but left in 2020. i did not like his downplaying of the trump Putin friendship
he tried to warn us
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Nazis being Nazis
If you search for it, its only reported by two outlets. There is not a single German newspaper reporting this, including left wing or Berlin regional ones. Searching for the names in the articles returns no results linked to Berlin or Free Palestine at all. The name of the public official also turns up nothing.
Could be misinformation.
The financial times and the Irish times have since picked it up.
Thanks
So will you redact now that it "could be misinformation“ or are you just gonna leave it there as alternative facts, Fox News style?
Or they can leave it alone and people with brains can realize that OP is older than the posts stating that the story is picked up by other outlets now.
God forbid The Intercept gets a scoop.
At this point it’s equally likely that the mainstream media just don’t care because of their reason of state. Idk how their reporting is on other Palestine related content but in my country it’s mostly silence, I learn about what’s happening mostly from The Guardian and Al Jazeera because most media outlets simply don’t give a fuck about Palestinian life.
Yeah, no. There are many left wing German newspapers.
Taz for example being the biggest one. They are talking about Gaza contantly. They also haven’t picked up this story
The Tagesspiegel since has https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/nach-beteiligung-an-palastina-protesten-in-berlin-drei-eu-burgern-und-einem-studenten-aus-den-usa-droht-ausweisung-13468543.html (Article is in German)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXkS0ykfvvI
Absolutely not true. Listen to this interview if you wanna get an accurate picture (unfortunately in German but there should be AI generated subtitles). The situation is grim.
The reality is that the news are probably true, and it’s quite common that people will either gaslight or simply not give a fuck. Germany went absolutely fascist, it’s a terrible situation. Even “left-wing” newspapers like TAZ aren’t very left wing when it comes to Palestinians. Your typical liberal German academic will deny this but who’s even asking them anymore?
Dieses Video ist alles andere als ein akkurates Bild.
Says who?
Da muss man nur ein paar Minuten zuhören um zu merken, dass es eine reine Pro-Hamas Propagadasendung ist.
Yes everything is Hamas, obviously. What a load of BS. Give me one example of a “pro-Hamas” statement and in English please so that everyone can get an idea of your agenda. You Zionists are monsters, Zionism is irredeemable and history won’t fare well of people like you.
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That’s fair, but then again the Intercept is a pretty reputable site and the story seems legit.
Already addressed this elsewhere so pasting the same comment; It is possible the American student contacted TheIntercept first. If TheIntercept is the first source then German media will likely pick up the story soon.
I also searched for the lawyer
“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.”
Alexander Gorski is the same person who overturned Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s ban from Germany which does lend a lot of credibility unless TheIntercept is straight up making up quotes from people out of thin air.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) announced in a social media post on Tuesday that it, along with lawyer Alexander Gorski and the European Legal Support Centre, had successfully challenged the travel ban imposed on Abu Sitta by Germany.
The Tagesspiegel as well. One of the German papers of middle size. They also asked sources independently.
The account in the linked article presents a completely different version of events compared to the original narrative by TheIntercept.com. According to the Tagesspiegel article, individuals armed with axes reportedly forced their way into the Free University of Berlin, where they threatened staff members and caused damage to the premises.
It’s not a different version. Just a different spin on the same story. It changes nothing. Notice how the Tagesspiegel only says that some of the protesters used axes to break into a building, then threatened employees but not if they used the axes for it. It does not say they used them as arms. It also does not say if the protesters that threatened people and vandalised the building are the ones that are now about to be deported just that they also broke in. It implies it though. The wonderful thing about implications is that you can imply stuff about someone that isn’t falsifiedable. So it does not add relevant details about the four people threatened by deportation. Just spin. You are being toyed with.
In Germany, breaking and entering can lead to deportation if it’s considered a serious crime and affects public safety. Authorities review each case individually based on the person’s situation and the severity of the offense(Aufenthaltsgesetz). However, none of the four have been convicted of any crimes which is odd. Overall, the case is not as The Intercept portrays it. It was not merely a peaceful protest leading to an unjust deportation, nor is it in any way comparable to the situation unfolding in the United States.
I was also sceptical but it seems to be generally true, however the details of it are way more complicated. Read for yourself if you know German or use a translator, one of the biggest Berlin newspapers picked it up and added details : https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/nach-beteiligung-an-palastina-protesten-in-berlin-drei-eu-burgern-und-einem-studenten-aus-den-usa-droht-ausweisung-13468543.html
Israel applying pressure on Germany.
Israel the kings of the world?
Nah if the USA gets blamed (deserved) Germany gets fucking blamed (also deserved as the original fucking Nazis they shouldn’t have been forgiven, either).
Fash support fash. Germany has been supporting genocide for a long time.
It’s really amazing how liberals will completely accept genocide up until the very second that it affects them.
Oh really? How? What genocide?
Uh… The one in Gaza?
It is heart breaking to see Germany begin to give in to fascism again. What happened to “never again!” ???
It was a lie.
And in a decade or so, before you know it, Deutschland will be invading Poland again.
Nah, Putin already has marked the map with Trump’s sharpie.
My prediction, built on assuming we’re in the stupidest timeline, is that Germany will try to help the Palestinians…by carving a new homeland for them out of Poland.
It’s because: “this time it’s different”
People started to claim that the people did the thing that was supposed to never happen again did them with no moral self-justifications. This lead to the same evil people getting away with evil yet again if they pull out a (usually fabricated) crime statistics, etc.
Look, if we don’t tolerate at least a little genocide of somebody else, then we’re basically throwing our votes away. /s
Albert Einstein is 100% correct.
Just yesterday people were cheering up germany government for rearming for war and everyone arguing against it was being downvoted.
I was there. It was weird.
“I think re-arming doesn’t do anything but spend money that could be better spent on helping people.”
“Shut up, this is exactly what we need right now!”
“So you don’t care about helping people?”
“That’s a strawman!”
Wow it looks like we were right again, but still downvoted and removed. Odd how that always works.
Germany likes to pretend they’re super liberal and that they have no fascist citizens. They’ve gone completely to the other side of history where they now pretend like they’re above it all. I’m sick of people pretending like Germany is some sort of promised land
I am a German citizen and we do not pretend we don’t have fascist citizens. Why do you think we do?
Because everything we hear in Canada about Germany is lollipop propaganda about how perfect Germany is. You don’t see it from the inside but to the rest of us, the German government spends money to make themselves look like the country everyone should strive to be. You’re part of the machine so it’s no surprise you’re not aware of how others perceive you.
We are literally told that any Nazi or fascist activity is banned and illegal, and not allowed. yet i see plenty of photos of German neo Nazi rallies
Oh interesting. Can you tell me what they are Spending the money on? I know of DW who often pushes german Propaganda but I think in the whole picture of the news media their reach is relatively small compared to other news outlets’ reach.
But I still don’t think we pretend there aren’t any Nazis in Germany. You may have missed it or the news hasn’t reached you ;) but there was a big wave of protests in 2024 against rightwing extremism here Wikipedia no need to read it all but you can scroll down to the list of protests and look at the participant amounts.
B/c USA is brainwashed by the zionism that Germany supports. We’re raised thinking that Germany changed and is now a leader in anti-semitism, etc. It’s brainwashing.
But anybody with a clue, including many Germans, realizes that their zionism is still anti-semitic AF. It’s an attack on non-fascist jews and a literal genocide against palestinians.
Yeah fuck the Israeli government
Germany has a disgusting government.
“Good” old Nazi thinking never left the German elites, hence their “unwavering support” for a nation committing Genocide very openly because of the race of its people, hence the highly manipulated Press over there spreading and amplifying race-based views and hence their casual bypassing of legal rights to silence those who would demonstrate against such ultra-racism and the support of Genocide based on it.
They might have changed who the ubermenschen and the untermenshen are but they still keep on classifying people into those two categories by race and treating then very differently, as well as using force to silence dissent against such views and practices.
In light of Russia’s aggressiveness, the recent news of Germany militarizing itself sounds like good news, but in light of the increasing regression of Germany back to their old extreme-racist and repressive practices those are very bad news - a Germany which thinks race justifies Genocide and suppresses by force dissent from such way of thinking is bound to sooner or later once again use such military power against those they deem “lesser races”
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