In the first week of January, I received a letter from the Berlin Immigration Office, informing me that I had lost my right of freedom of movement in Germany, due to allegations around my involvement in the pro-Palestine movement. Since I’m a Polish citizen living in Berlin, I knew that deporting an EU national from another EU country is practically impossible. I contacted a lawyer and, given the lack of substantial legal reasoning behind the order, we filed a lawsuit against it, after which I didn’t think much of it.
I later found out that three other people active in the Palestine movement in Berlin, Roberta Murray, Shane O’Brien and Cooper Longbottom, received the same letters. Murray and O’Brien are Irish nationals, Longbottom is American. We understood this as yet another intimidation tactic from the state, which has also violently suppressed protests and arrested activists, and expected a long and dreary but not at all urgent process of fighting our deportation orders.
Then, at the beginning of March, each of our lawyers received on our behalf another letter, declaring that we are to be given until 21 April to voluntarily leave the country or we will be forcibly removed. The letters cite charges arising from our involvement in protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. None of the charges have yet led to a court hearing, yet the deportation letters conclude that we are a threat to public order and national security.
You are aware that this term has quite a different connotation on a primarily German-speaking instance than in most places on the internet? There’s nothing wrong with the link you posted. It’s the polemics that have gotten you banned, so there’s no reason to frame it the way you did.
Maybe if Germans don’t like being called Nazis, they should stop persecuting people for speaking out about a regime that is actively attempting to ethically cleanse and genocide an entire race and culture.
You would hope those Germans would recognize their government acting like Nazis and agree that their government are being Nazis for deporting people protesting against genocide.
Instead they pick up the Hugo Boss boots and lick them squeaky clean. Absolutely disgusting.
Can you explain how the connotation is different?
“Nazi” is much more strongly associated with the original National Socialists that sent people to the gas chambers and ghettos. It’s not just a drop-in replacement for “fascist” or “far right”, like it has become in places like the US. It’s kinda hard to describe the weight it carries, considering how much use it gets on the internet. If you called a policeman a Nazi in Germany, you’d have to pay a hefty fine.
You mean like putting 2 million people in a concentration camp and then starving them to death?
Ah… alright. Does it make a difference if the label is applied to someone who is following the actual beliefs and platform of the National Socialists (aka Neo Nazis)?
Neo-Nazis are called Nazis because their beliefs are still the same. It’s just not used as a blanket term for other right-wing or authoritarian ideologies.
Well the Link conveniently leaves out that the reason for their removal proceedings wasn’t just for protesting, but for participating in violently occupying a university building, while threatening the staff with axes and metal bars, and doing property damages up to 100.000€, which is a pretty heavy crime in Germany (Landesfriedensbruch)
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/abschiebung-ausweisung-palaestina-aktivisten-rechtswidrig-eugh-freizuegigkeit-berlin
What does “participating” entail? This particular individual, what did they do in particular? Guilt by association is either bullshit or should be used to punish every fucking Israeli citizen who has ever served in the genocidal IDF. Do you think that last bit’s a bit crazy? Well, yea, that’s the point, isn’t it. Guilt by association is bullshit.
They have not been charged with anything related to that protest, and there is no evidence they even entered the building, much less threatened anyone.
They are not charged because the Staatsanwaltschaft isn’t done with their work yet. The LKA claims they were there and tried to stop the arrests. We will see what kind of evidence they have.
Did you read the Article?
There was obviously some pressure to do the deportation process faster, and they should wait for the outcome of the process. But if the accusations turn out to be true, then the “I was deported only for protesting”-Claims are a bit dishonest
This is like listening to a Trump supporter defending Donald Trump for deporting a gay hairdresser to El Salvador. And i mean 100% word for word.
Germans are defending the Trump style deportation practices without due-process. Which is amazing, because Lemmy does not really have any Trump supporters. Yet on feddit.org people will post these far-right propaganda talking points of deporting people without due-process as if it is completely normal. They will verbatim quote their government propaganda justifying it, even if it makes absolutely no sense and is completely in violation of human rights and even the German law. And they talk like they are the normal ones.
Really drives home how far into Nazism Germany already is.
Your comment:
Makes it seem like they occupied the building and made violent threats, I was adding clarification that there is no evidence they did either.
If the accusations turn out to be true that doesn’t mean that they weren’t deported for protesting, that just means they found a legal excuse to do so. If a cop arrests a black guy wearing a black lives matter shirt for jaywalking, even if the guy was actually jaywalking that doesn’t mean the cop who arrested them wasnt racist.
We’re talking about motive here which is very hard to prove one way or the other. One thing you can look at though is whether the case looks to be getting special attention by the prosecutors when compared to similar cases. This looks to be the case as it seems this is the first time they’ve done this expedited deportation without charges for an EU citizen.
That was a quote from the Article which itself quoted the Report from the LKA
If the accusations turn out to be true, it’s not “just a legal excuse”. Violently protesting, threatening staff and fucking up University Property is not okay. That’s stuff that lands you in prison
And if they do not turn out to be true then you agree that Germany is a Fascistic Nazi state?
Your hyperbolic use of the word Nazi relativizes it’s meaning. That’s the issue a lot of people have with you.
Yes, the German state has a lot of problems including unjust deportations. But your polemics are uncalled for.
Your Nazi government is relativizing the Holocaust by using it as an excuse to commit a new one.
Again they didn’t do any of that stuff, at worse if the accusations are true they only tried to stop people who did that from getting arrested. How many people are getting deported for just resisting arrest?
Thanks, I appreciate the context. Though the post itself was not removed, which makes it clear that the link wasn’t the reason for the ban.