The country’s so-called political centre has licensed a new era of authoritarianism – to the AfD’s delight, says Hanno Hauenstein, a Berlin-based journalist

Germany has recently taken a chilling new step, signalling its willingness to use political views as grounds to curb migration. Authorities are now moving to deport foreign nationals for participating in pro-Palestine actions. As I reported this week in the Intercept, four people in Berlin – three EU citizens and one US citizen – are set to be deported over their involvement in demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza. None of the four have been convicted of a crime, and yet the authorities are seeking to simply throw them out of the country.

The accusations against them include aggravated breach of the peace and obstruction of a police arrest. Reports from last year suggest that one of the actions they were alleged to have been involved in included breaking into a university building and threatening people with objects that could have been used as potential weapons.

But the deportation orders go further. They cite a broader list of alleged behaviours: chanting slogans such as “Free Gaza” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, joining road blockades (a tactic frequently used by climate activists), and calling a police officer a “fascist”. Read closely, the real charge appears to be something more basic: protest itself.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    14 hours ago

    They wouldn’t need “free” water, electricity, or go to Israel for a job if they had autonomy.

      • Tattorack@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        10 hours ago

        Hmm… Perhaps you’re ignorant of the definition of “genocide”. Allow me to enlighten you:

        Genocide (noun):

        1. The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.

        2. The systematic killing of a racial or cultural group.

        3. The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, social status, or other particularity.

        (source: wordlink).

        • the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.

        (source: Merriam-Webster).

        Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people.[a][1] Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as “the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group” by means such as “the disintegration of [its] political and social institutions, of [its] culture, language, national feelings, religion, and [its] economic existence”.[2]

        (source: Wikipedia)

        I hope that clears a few things up.