Berlin tries to deport pro-Palestinos activists

Authorities in the German capital want to expel four citizens from the European Union and the US after accusing them of committing crimes in pro-Palestinian protests. Jurists question legality of the measure.

Berlin authorities want to expel four people from Germany who, according to police, would have participated in violent pro-Palestinian protests. Three are citizens of the European Union – of Irish and Polish nationality – the other has American citizenship.

The case was revealed earlier this week by The Incertept. All four were informed about the cancellation of their visas in mid -March in communications issued by the State Department of Immigration, according to the Berlin Interior Secretariat.

The agency states that the decision is “related to episodes that occurred at the Free University of Berlin on October 17, 2024”. That day, the university would have been invaded and deprecated by a group of violent and masked people who would have committed several “crimes”.

The folder cites “graffiti related to the Israel-Palestinian complex”. In photos published on social network X, which would allegedly show the state of the university building after the attempted occupation, you see messages such as “from river to sea, Palestine will be free” or “Libertem Gaza”. Inverted red triangles – symbol used in Hamas propaganda videos to mark enemies, and which was banned by the German Interior Ministry – would also have been bought on the walls.

Lawyer says he did not have access to the prosecution

The three European citizens had revoked their right to freedom to go and go to the European Union that guaranteed their free stay in Germany. The information was confirmed by lawyer Alexander Gorski, who represents two of them. According to him, decisions against his clients were based on police reports. “There is no criminal conviction,” he says, who claims that he has not even had access to the documents and evidence that subsidizes the accusation.

According to the Berlin authorities, the four would also have participated in other pro-Palestinian protests. Manifestations of the type have occurred in Germany and around the world since the beginning of the War in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which left about 1,200 dead in Israel.

Activists accuse German authorities of repressing demonstrations

Several activists said they want to protest against the Israeli military offensive in Gaza to draw attention to the suffering of Palestinian civilians. But many claim that they are treated disproportionately lasting by the German authorities, who would be restricting their right to freedom of expression.

Protesters accuse police of brutally repressing pro-Palestinian protests | Tobias Schwarz/ AFP

Activist and writer Yasmeen Daher, for example, said in an interview with the German newspaper Taz that many vehicles would have stigmatized protesters to label them collectively as anti-Semitic.

The performance of the German authorities is also criticized by entities such as Amnesty International (AI). The Human Rights Defense NGO considers an exaggeration to prohibit and criminalize the “river to sea” slogan and the inverted red triangle, and argues that both are symbols of solidarity with the Palestinian people who are not directly associated with Hamas.

The slogan “From Rio to the Sea” – allusion to the lane of the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, where today are the Gaza, Israel and the West Bank – is perceived by the political stablishment of Germany as a message that would signal the intention to exterminate Israel. Decisions of courts in the country, however, have already supported other interpretations of the slogan, classifying it as a peaceful expression of solidarity and the desire for equal rights for all in the region.

Often German authorities say acting to combat manifestations of anti -Semitism specifically aimed at Israel. Secretary of the interior of Berlin, social democrat Iris Spranger, for example, cites the “risk of radicalization” of small and violent groups of pro-Palestinian activists.

Fu Berlin speaks of “violent attack”

Berlin Free University (Fu Berlin) claims to have been the target of a “violent attack” on October 17, 2024. “People acted extremely brutally, physically attacked employees and threatened them verbally,” the institution said in a public position.

Police ended the attempted occupation and arrested four people. Against they opened reports of occurrence for, among other accusations, disturbance of public peace. They are the ones who now risk being deported.

The mayor of Berlin, conservative Kai Wegner, criticized the protesters: “The invasion of the free university of Berlin by such pro-Palestinos activists demonstrates once again that they are not interested in a dialogue, but that they only know one thing: harm to heritage, violence and hatred.”

The Fu Berlin Student Guild also published a position shortly after the episode. In it, the students criticized the police for lack of dialogue and excessively harsh conduct from the agents.

So far there is no court decision to prove which concrete actions the four protesters would have committed. One of them, who was accused of having cursed a “fascist” police officer – offending public agents is a crime in Germany – was innovated in the courts.

Can Germany expel citizens from the EU?

If there is no judicial conviction, why can protesters be deported from Germany?

Lawyer Gorski says his clients are accused of “supporting Hamas directly and spreading anti -Semitism.” But, according to Intercept, there is no concrete evidence of this.

The order of deportation seems to inaugurate a precedent by based on the “German state reason” – a concept evoked by politicians in Germany who argue that ensuring the safety and existence of the state of Israel is a fundamental task of the German state, given its responsibility for the Holocaust. But this principle is not foreseen in the German Constitution or other laws.

All four foreigners follow in Berlin and are contested the order of expulsion, which would have to be fulfilled until April 21.

Free circulation is central law of EU citizens

Citizens of the European Union have the right to live in any country in the bloc. But this freedom to come and go is not absolute, and can be restricted in the face of “sufficiently severe danger to public order or safety”, depending on individual attitudes of the European citizen in question.

The jurisprudence of the EU Court provides for the restriction of this right only in very specific cases, especially in cases of risk to public order, says Matthias Goldman, professor of international law at EBS University in Wiesbaden. “There must be a conviction for committing crime. A simple conviction is not enough,” he explains.

The defense of the four foreigners, however, ensures that there is no conviction against its customers.

Deportation is not unanimous among Berlin authorities

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, the deportation of foreigners is not a unanimous measure among Berlin authorities. The evaluation of high officials of the State Department for Immigration (LEA) would be that suspicions raised against the four would not be sufficient to justify the restriction of the right of European citizens to free circulation by the bloc.

This is what also argues Gorski. The lawyer considers the “illicit” expulsion orders and says he does not believe that they will be supported by courts. According to him, migratory law in this case is being used as a “instrument of repression of social movements and, especially, of the pro-Palestinos movement”.

Gorski also sees parallels with what is happening in the US, where foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinos actions have had their visas canceled by the authorities. One of the most notorious cases is that of a Turkish doctoral student arrested on a public road, allegedly published an article in a university newspaper in which he asked the institution to cut relations with Israel due to war in the Gaza Strip.

“Fight against certain political positions”

Jurist Matthias Goldmann also sees the orders of expulsion as part of a larger context, and criticizes the Berlin government: “This government is definitely the most problematic in Germany, when it comes to the fight against solidarity by Palestine. This is what we already see in the number of prisons, the prohibitions of demonstrations.”

For Goldmann, there is a “struggle against certain political positions” associated with war in Gaza and the Israelo-Palestine conflict. He says the accusation of anti -Semitism is used as a pretext for demolishing mechanisms of protection of the democratic rule of law.

Originally published by DW on 04/04/2025