Four Gaza protesters in Germany are set for deportations despite objections from an immigration official that none were convicted of crimes.

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.”

  • Obelix@feddit.orgEnglish
    31·
    3 days ago

    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

    • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      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.

      • Obelix@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        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.

        • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          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.

          • Obelix@feddit.orgEnglish
            1·
            1 day ago

            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

            • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
              11·
              1 day ago

              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?