Berlin Moves to Deport Four Pro-Palestinian Activists

Taking a page from Trump’s playbook, the Berlin government of Kai Wegner (CDU) is moving to deport four pro-Palestinian activists. As Hanno Hauenstein first reported in The Intercept yesterday, the four received orders to leave Germany or face deportation by April 21. Shane O’Brien and Roberta Murray are Irish citizens, while Kasia Wlaszczyk is Polish.

EU citizens generally enjoy freedom of movement, but this can be revoked in individual cases. Cooper Longbottom is from the U.S.



and has a student visa.None of them have been convicted of any crime. They have faced different charges in the context of pro-Palestine demonstrations, such as calling a police officer a “fascist.

” Yet only one of them has been taken to court, and O’Brien was acquitted of the charge of insulting an officer.The deportation orders accuse them of being a “current danger for public safety and order” — more or less the same argument the Trump administration is using to target students like Mahmoud Khalil. Berlin’s Senate has presented no evidence for its claim that these four support Hamas or are antisemitic.

Instead, the four are accused of attending demonstrations where the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine, will be free” has been chanted. The German government’s attempt to ban this slogan has been rejected by multiple German courts, as the legal basis is extremely tenuous. And even if the slogan were clearly illegal, there is no evidence that these four used it.

The irony is that Berlin’s mayor maintains friendly relations with actual antisemites. Wegner has refused, again and again, to condemn Elon Musk for Hitler salutes and antisemitic conspiracy theories. Instead, Berlin’s official website continues to praise the far-right billionaire as an “important job creator.

”Blatantly IllegalUpon seeing the request to file a deportation order last December, a department head at Berlin’s immigration office wrote back that this was blatantly illegal: without any convictions, there was no basis for revoking an EU citizen’s freedom of movement. In another echo of the Trump’s administration, this was overruled by a political appointee, an SPD politician named Christian Oestmann.Longbottom, the U.

S. citizen, is finishing a master’s program at Berlin’s Alice Salomon University (ASH). A deportation, including a ban on entering all Schengen Zone countries for two years, would not only rob them of their home but also of a degree they have worked for.

This is like the case of Ranjani Srinivasan and other students in the U.S. An ASH spokesperson said they “wish this person will be able to complete their studies in the summer semester” — but no word yet about any concrete measures the university is planning to defend them.

Germany’s foreign office recently warned trans people about travel to the United States. Longbottom is trans, as is Wlaszczyk. Berlin’s attempt to deport trans people to countries with queerphobic policies goes against basic human rights.

The German government’s attacks on the democratic rights of pro-Palestinian protesters is endangering further protections.Just ten days ago, Berlin’s Department for Science, offering refuge to researchers from the states, made an Instagram post decrying “the Trump government’s attacks on U.S.

science,” including “massive financial cuts and interference with academic freedom.” They promised a fund to help U.S.

researchers continue their work in Berlin — yet are now carrying out some of Trump’s policies. I reached out to the Science Department for comment and will update this article if they respond.Reason of StateIn a statement, the four criticize Germany’s Staatsräson — a doctrine that enshrines unconditional Support for Israel, no matter its systematic human rights abuses and war crimes.

This same Staatsräson has been used to justify Germany’s complicity in the ongoing genocide, while systematically suppressing criticism of Israel’s 77-year settler-colonial project, ethnic cleansing, and the current mass Slaughter, displacement, and starvation of Palestinians.This “reason of state” is a fundamentally anti-democratic concept, positing that the interests of the state override both the democratic will of the population and established legal and constitutional norms. In the last 18 months, the German government has brushed aside its obligations under international law — such as the arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and drawn criticism from human rights groups like Amnesty International for restrictions on the right to protest.

These deportations mark a major escalation of the attacks on democratic rights. It is noteworthy that the case was first reported in U.S.

and Israeli-Palestinian outlets, followed by Irish media. German newspapers and TV stations have reported very little so far.The German government justifies the repression against the Palestine movement with the need to protect Jewish life, as if all Jews were supporters of Israel.

In reality, the last 18 months have seen an unprecedented wave of state violence against Jewish people at pro-Palestine demonstrations — a tiny minority in Germany that is vastly overrepresented at every protest. It seems like it will only be a matter of time until the German government starts deporting Jews in the name of “fighting antisemitism.”The post Berlin Moves to Deport Four Pro-Palestinian Activists appeared first on Left Voice.

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