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.”

    • @reiterationstation@lemm.ee
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      49 hours ago

      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).

  • @asg101@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4415 hours ago

    International law: Conducting and Support of Genocide is Illegal.

    U.S./Germany law: Protesting Genocide is Illegal.

    • @404UsernameNotFound@lemmy.wtf
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      11 hours ago

      The challenge lies in the fact that criticism of Israel is often intertwined with accusations of anti-Semitism. Germany finds itself in a delicate position: on one hand, it has pledged unwavering support to the state of Israel; on the other hand, it must uphold the right to dissent and allow protests against Israeli policies.

      • @SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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        1210 hours ago

        It’s not delicate at all.

        If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they’re not values: they’re hobbies.

        —Jon Stewart

        • @404UsernameNotFound@lemmy.wtf
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          18 hours ago

          I don’t understand how the quote applies to the situation described. Germany has a deep responsibility to support Israel because of its history with the Holocaust. However, it also believes in free speech and the right to protest. The challenge is balancing these two—supporting Israel while allowing criticism of its policies without crossing into anti-Semitism.

          • @SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            No, Germany feels a responsibility to help Jews as reparations for the holocaust. Not a blank check to the rightwing Israeli government or giving them a pass when they violate international law. And certainly not violating Germany’s free speech laws by arresting nonviolent protestors condemning a foreign government for their war crimes. There’s no challenge here unless you think every protestor is an anti-Semite.

      • @nomoregerm@lemmy.cafe
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        38 hours ago

        You say that as if they were equals. The antisemitism is supporting Israel. They are the rich Jews who paid the Nazis for the right to bail like coward, which at least partly funded the Holocaust. Then, Germany left the Jews without citizenship until 1948. They basically solved the JewiSh QueStiOn by deporting them where they come from.

        Maybe Germany’s commitment should go toward preventing mass killing more than protecting a specific ethnic group.

        And and don’t get me started on how much money the Germans have made sending weapons for the genocide. This is just a subsidy to their weapon industry at this point

      • @IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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        39 hours ago

        Choosing between an incredibly bad lie to commit genocide and not committing genocide must be a hard choice for Germany, knowing their history and regret for their previous genocide

        No wait, Germany is supporting genocide again.

        “Germany has pledged unwavering support to a genocidal colonial apartheid” really is not the own Germans think it is.

        • @404UsernameNotFound@lemmy.wtf
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          18 hours ago

          The world is far too nuanced to be categorized as merely good or evil, as you suggest. Following the atrocities of the Holocaust during World War II, Germany has assumed a profound moral and political obligation to safeguard and support the state of Israel, a commitment that remains a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

          Yes, Germany has expressed strong support for Israel during the ongoing conflict, primarily through diplomatic efforts and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

          • @IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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            6 hours ago

            Nuance for genocide what is next nuance for Adolf Hitler? “Well he did kill all those Jews but you have to remember he was denied his art education!”

            Here is a good rule to live by:

            Genocide bad.

  • @SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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    2115 hours ago

    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.

      • @index@sh.itjust.works
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        914 hours ago

        well known russia supporter

        Never supported the russian government in any of the comments i ever made. You sound brainwashed on propaganda.

        • @ubergeek@lemmy.today
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          813 hours ago

          Everything anti-genocide is apparently pro-Russia… I’ve been accused of being a tanky, and a Russian shill; and well, I’m most certainly neither of them.

        • @index@sh.itjust.works
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          814 hours ago

          I’m sure i’ve even commented before that they should kill putin but according to the propaganda you must have it tattoed on your body or it doesn’t count and you are still a russian troll.

        • Mubelotix
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          415 hours ago

          Look further, he comments a lot. He tries more and more to conceal his views

          • @5gruel@lemmy.world
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            815 hours ago

            Also had a look at their comment history, does not look very damning to me. Can you link a comment you are referring to?

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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      1222 hours ago

      “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.

  • @truthfultemporarily@feddit.org
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    1502 days ago

    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.

  • @technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    571 day ago

    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.

  • @jagermo@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    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.

    • @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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      111 day ago

      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.

      • @jagermo@feddit.org
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        41 day ago

        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

    • @IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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      182 days ago

      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.

        • @IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 days ago

          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.

    • @truthfultemporarily@feddit.org
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      142 days ago

      Yeah nothing in the taz - Germanys biggest left wing newspaper. Nothing in the Zeit and nothing in Tagespiegel (Berlin Newspaper) either.

      • @fantasty@programming.dev
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        1 day ago

        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.

        • @brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          51 day ago

          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“

          • @fantasty@programming.dev
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            17 hours ago

            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.

        • @truthfultemporarily@feddit.org
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          51 day ago

          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.

    • @amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      112 days ago

      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.

  • @But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
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    232 days ago

    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

  • @VisionScout@lemmy.wtf
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    1 day ago

    Unfortunately in germany, france and uk, there’s a big chunk of people that participate in protests against israel and in the protests in favor of turning the country who took them into a caliphate. Anyway i don’t think this article is true since it’s not being reported anywhere.

    • @Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      131 day ago

      Yeah, checks notes… Cooper Longbottom, Kasia Wlaszczyk, Shane O’Brien, and Roberta Murray are surely trying to turn Germany into a caliphate…

    • @fantasty@programming.dev
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      1 day ago

      It comes from a credible journalist who explicitly names the four victims and quotes their real, existing lawyer who has defended similar cases before.

      This is the typical Zionist playbook of spreading lies until we moved on to the next topic, and by the time it turns out to be true everyone already forgot about the issue. Don’t forget that they just did a 20-fold increase to $150m for their Hasbara botfarm. It wouldn’t be surprising if they also showed up here already. Also lots of new accounts here spreading Zionist propaganda.

      • @VisionScout@lemmy.wtf
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        1 day ago

        From the article:

        Some, but not all, of the allegations would correspond to criminal charges in Germany; almost none of them have been brought before a criminal court.

        They just need to take them to a criminal court and let the judge decide