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Al Jazeera
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Germany wants to expel four pro-Palestine activists: What you should know
Berlin, Germany – Germany is being accused of silencing pro-Palestinian voices, having ordered the deportations of three European nationals and a United States citizen over their alleged actions at demonstrations. None has been convicted of any crime. Critics said the decision is another chapter of German unease with the pro-Palestine movement. Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, tensions have flared as officials have moved to ban protests and cancel events while cultural institutes have distanced themselves from artists who raise awareness about the Palestinian cause. Here's what you should know: The four activists received initial letters in the post in January informing them they had lost the right of freedom of movement. Two months later, their lawyers received deportation letters from Berlin's state migration authority on behalf of their clients in which they were told to leave by April 21 or be forcibly removed. The activists are: Cooper Longbottom, a 27-year-old US citizen and university student, and cultural workers Kasia Wlaszczyk, a 35-year-old Polish national; Shane O'Brien, 29; and Roberta Murray, 31. O'Brien and Murray are Irish citizens. All four allegedly participated in a sit-in at the Free University of Berlin. On Friday in an emergency injunction, Berlin's state administrative court ruled that O'Brien may remain until a full hearing is held. The temporary measure is one of interim relief when a court or legal authority acts to protect someone's rights or interests while a case is still being decided. The court said the migration authority failed to 'fulfil sufficiently its official duty of investigation' when deciding to withdraw his European Union freedom of movement rights, according to The Irish Times. In a police report seen by Al Jazeera, incidents are listed from October last year onwards. German authorities said the activists have spread 'anti-Semitic hatred and incitement' as well as 'anti-Israeli hatred'. The four are accused of criminal acts such as resisting arrest, property damage and disturbing the peace. The document also refers to insulting remarks, alleging that some of the activists called a police officer a 'fascist'. In Germany, insulting someone is classified as a defamation of honour offence and can be subject to legal punishment. Two were initially accused of this. One – O'Brien – has since been acquitted. In a statement provided to Al Jazeera, the Berlin Senate Department for the Interior and Sport referred to an incident in question. 'A group of masked individuals willing to use violence forced their way into a university building. This led to significant property damage inside the building, including graffiti related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as other criminal offences. As far as we are aware, the legal proceedings are still ongoing. No further details can be provided due to data protection regulations,' it said. The Intercept first broke the story, triggering a round of condemnation towards Germany from critics. The activists' legal team argued the charges are being used as a pretext to suppress political speech and assembly rights, particularly concerning Palestine. 'The decisions to deport our clients have no valid legal basis,' said lawyer Benjamin Dusberg, a member of the five-person legal team representing the activists. 'This purely political justification is in no way compatible with the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Not a word is mentioned that our clients protested against the genocide in Gaza and its support through German arms deliveries.' Wlaszczyk said the allegations are unfounded. 'I refuse to engage in dishonest accusations of anti-Semitism and falling into the trap of defending myself against this gross abuse of the term being thrown around by police, journalists and the state to slander and criminalise the pro-Palestinian movement,' he told Al Jazeera. 'By now, we all know that accusations of anti-Semitism have been turned by the German state into an authoritarian dog whistle and a racist tool which predominantly targets the Palestinian and Arab communities in Germany.' The deportation orders were issued as Germany faces accusations of a broader national clampdown on pro-Palestinian activism. These allegations have grown during Israel's latest war on Gaza, but they have haunted Germany even before October 2023. Since the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken captive, Israel has killed more than 50,983 people in Gaza, including tens of thousands of children. In a statement, the four activists painted a bleak picture of Berlin over the past 18 months. 'Rampant unrestrained police violence goes hand in hand with this repressive use of immigration law to silence pro-Palestinian voices and political dissent. Arbitrary arrests made at protests, combined with false charges, are used as pretexts to justify extrajudicial deportation measures, circumventing any notion of independent judicial process and the rule of law,' they said. In recent years, Berlin authorities have banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations and national symbols associated with Palestinian identity. Germany said protests have been banned because of concerns about the potential for hate speech. Administrative courts have said they pose an 'imminent danger to public safety and order'. Berlin has given schools a green light to ban the wearing of Palestinian keffiyeh scarves on the grounds that they may threaten 'school peace'. Additionally, chanting slogans like 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' has been banned in certain contexts because they are seen as denying Israel's right to exist. In August, a protester was fined about $650 over the chant, which German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has described as a pro-Hamas slogan. Cultural institutions have lost public funding over ties to pro-Palestinian advocacy, raising concerns about artistic freedom and political repression in the country. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on November 8, 2023, called on Arab communities in Germany to distance themselves from Hamas, a comment that saw him accused of discrimination. Furthermore, according to amendments to Germany's citizenship laws, applicants seeking naturalisation will be required to affirm Israel's right to exist. In the case of the activists, German authorities have cited the principle of 'Staatsrason' – or reason of state – as a basis for the deportation orders. Israel's security is seen by Germany as its reason of state, given Nazi Germany's role in systematically murdering six million Jews during the Holocaust. 'The immigration authorities themselves initially considered the deportation decisions to be illegal as none of our clients had a criminal record. But then they were instructed to do so by the Berlin Senate,' Dusberg said. Internal emails reviewed by Al Jazeera confirm that Federal Foreign Office employees challenged the legality of the Berlin Senate's deportation request, but their objections were unsuccessful. 'In the reasons for the decisions, direct reference is then made in the police report to the so-called Staatsrason. According to this report, our clients have acted in conflict with the reason of state,' Dusberg added. While not codified into law, Staatsrason has shaped public discourse as a guiding state doctrine. Observers argued it fosters censorship, pitting democratic values like free speech and freedom of assembly against Germany's unwavering solidarity with Israel. In March last year, the Financial Times's Berlin bureau chief, Guy Chazan, wrote: 'Any criticism of Israel is now seen by some people in power as antisemitic. It is an approach that is tying Germans up in knots, inflaming social tensions and undermining the country's credibility in the Global South.' Adding to the controversy surrounding Berlin's foreign policy as Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated, Friedrich Merz, the likely next German chancellor, recently invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Germany despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the Israeli leader for alleged war crimes.
Middle East Eye
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Pro-Palestine activists targeted for deportation hit out at German state repression
On a video call, two EU nationals and an American recently served with deportation orders by Berlin's state government for attending demonstrations against Israel's war on Gaza told Middle East Eye they strongly reject accustions of antisemitism and indirect support for Hamas. Kasia Wlaszczyk, a Polish culture worker, 31-year-old Irish artist Roberta Murray, and 27-year-old American social work student Cooper Longbottom, were served the deportation orders last month, along with 29-year-old Irish citizen Shane O'Brien. The four activists have been given less than a month to leave Germany. Lawyers representing them have filed an injunction to suspend the deportation deadline set for 21 April while they wait for an appeal hearing, which could take a few months. The activists hope their case will shed light on the oppression the Palestine solidarity movement is facing in Germany in the wake of Israel's war on Gaza – and wake up wider German society to the rapid erosion of civil liberties in their country. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'The deportation letter lacked any legal basis citing accusations of antisemitism and of supporting Hamas,' Wlaszczyk says. 'It's destabilising and taking up a lot of time. I'd rather be campaigning against the genocide and demanding Germany stop its military support for Israel. 'Germany never went through a genuine process of denazification, and what we're seeing now is a hard shift towards racist, anti-migration politics. The antisemitic label is being weaponised against predominantly Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims,' argues Wlaszczyk. Murray echoed their Polish comrade's words about the case being a 'massive resource drain', saying it had been 'exhausting". 'But it has also highlighted the community support system we have here. The government is using us as guinea pigs to see how far they can push this.' Deportations While the German and local Berlin government is pursuing them, the activists also feel as though they have a lot of support to draw on in their community. Murray says they see this as a litmus test, and that the German government will likely face some sort of backlash for issuing an unprecedented deportation order against EU citizens. But the artist is fearful for what this means politically for those who have a less stable passport and immigration status, and who are already feeling the force of German state bigotry. 'Anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism works to criminalise people to the point where just existing as Palestinian in Germany becomes seen as criminal' - Cooper Longbottom, American student in Berlin 'Unfortunately, it hits differently when it's white people. Deportations of people with less stable immigration status have been taking place but we don't always hear about them, so deporting Europeans and western nationals is definitely a test to see what they can get away with,' Murray tells Middle East Eye. Longbottom, the American student, agrees, saying that middle-class Europeans might pay more attention to their cases 'because they think that, oh, now they could come after us'. 'Anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism works to criminalise people to the point where just existing as Palestinian in Germany becomes seen as criminal, and so the targeted deportations of Palestinians doesn't get the outrage or media attention they deserve,' he says. The American says that he and his fellow activists want to 'put this moment in a historical context, similar to the US,' to make clear that if authorities are able to get away with deporting them, they will 'continue to do so'. Germany's Staatsrason In a statement, the four activists condemned German authorities for politicising their deportation and referred to Germany's 'Staatsrason' (reason of state), the more or less unconditional support of the Israeli state in the name of its security. 'In the deportation documents, the LEA (Immigration Office) opens with a statement depicting the events of 7 October through Germany's Staatsrason,' the statement reads. 'This same Staatsrason has been used to justify Germany's complicity in the ongoing genocide… We categorically condemn Germany's complicity in genocide and reject these unlawful measures. With our legal team, we will fight this deportation all the way to the highest courts.' 'They are doing what is called Gleichschaltung, this is what Nazi Germany did, to push everyone to obey and comply, and not go against the system' - Iris Hefets, Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East The deportation orders have drawn widespread condemnation across civil society, including from left-wing political activists in Germany and from Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin. Martin has told Ireland's parliament that he will raise the case of O'Brien and Murray with German authorities. The Irish embassy in Berlin has already begun discussions with the German foreign ministry, while Irish MEPs are planning on raising the matter with the European Commission. Iris Hefets, a Jewish-Israeli board member for Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, a campaign organisation that has widely criticised Germany's continued military and diplomatic support for Israel, tells MEE that democratic values in the country have receded to a point where bureaucrats are now being forced by politicians to take illegal actions. 'They are doing what is called Gleichschaltung, this is what Nazi Germany did, to push everyone to obey and comply, and not go against the system,' Hefets says. 'German politicians are turning the country into an illegal democracy, they have so-far managed to shrink the pro-Palestine protests by politically persecuting people. These demonstrations used to be big, people used to attend from all over the world, particularly the Global South,' Hafets says. But now, many people who used to protest, fearing their citizenship status, are worried they will be targeted. 'Fascism pipeline' According to the Berlin-based journalist Hanno Hauenstein, who broke the story, the deportation orders were met with considerable pushback from senior bureaucrats against political pressure from Berlin's state government. In one instance, two senior bureaucrats wrote to the mayor of Berlin's office expressing their refusal to issue the orders due to a lack of 'criminal convictions to substantiate a sufficiently serious and actual threat'. 'We're in a fascism pipeline, the erosion of civil liberties is very real, we're like that frog in slowly boiling water' - Roberta Murray, Irish artist in Berlin Left-wing Greek party Mera25, founded by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, also strongly condemned the orders, saying it was part of a 'fascist, authoritarian attack on fundamental democratic rights.' 'Staatsrsson is not a legal category. It is a political slogan now being used to undermine constitutional rights and target dissenters,' the statement continued. Following the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, the German federal government froze the processing of all asylum applications from Gaza, saying 'the current events [in Gaza] are consistently unclear and difficult to assess'. This directly contradicts German courts, which have explicitly stated that 'there is a direct threat to life to anyone in Gaza'. 'We have to stand strong against this now,' says Murray, the Irish artist. 'We're in a fascism pipeline, the erosion of civil liberties is very real, we're like that frog in slowly boiling water; if you don't stand up now for those more marginalised that us, then when the next crisis comes along, it will be your door they will be knocking on.' Gaza genocide: How the hell did this happen, asks Pankaj Mishra Read More » Longbottom says that while their situation 'might seem scary', it is 'not deterring the movement. We will continue calling for a free Palestine. We will only intensify our work.' The group draws parallels between Germany and the US Trump administration, which has been targeting pro-Palestine civilians and using deportation as a weapon of repression. Alexander Gorski, the lawyer representing the activists, says he is optimistic the four activists won't be deported on 21 April. He tells MEE that the deportation orders are based on political pressure, and that because of this he is optimistic the group will get some interim relief in the next couple of weeks. But he says that he also sees parallels with how pro-Palestine activists are treated across the West. 'The weaponisation of migration law, not just in the US but also here, the same pattern has been used by German authorities as the US Trump administration."
