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.

  • Kimmy@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Or they just let you say what you want here… unlike reddit where you catch a ban for upvoting violence.

    • nomocid@lemmy.cafe
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      1 day ago

      Bullshit. They work for the status quo as much as Reddit does. They ban anti genocide voices, calls everyone who disagree with them “Russian troll”, and overall are holding the exact same line. I get banned all the time.

      • Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org
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        1 day ago

        You get banned for using sock puppets and insulting people while using them and saying that nowadays Germany and Israel should stop exist. That’s nothing freedom of speech is for. (c/germany mod here)

        Just want to state that, I will not reply to responses.

        E: nowadays

        • Count042@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          So freedom of speech shouldn’t allow people to say that apartheid South Africa shouldn’t exist? That Nazi Germany shouldn’t be allowed to exist?

          I can remember when opposing apartheid ethnostates was the correct moral opinion.

          What happened?

          What makes Israel different?

          Or are double standards proof of anti semitism only when they’re negative?

          EDIT: No response needed from moral cowards that would have protected apartheid South Africa, Belgium Congo, or Nazi Germany from criticism that they should not be allowed to exist.

          You probably won’t read this, but things like this are EXACTLY why freedom of speech exists.

          You would have condemned Nat Turner and justified slavery.

          • needanke@feddit.org
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            1 day ago

            There is a line between criticizing a state and arguing for its destruction/dehumanizing their people.

            And tbh for my taste that line gets crossed to often in discussions about Israel and Palestine.

            • Count042@lemmy.ml
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              19 hours ago

              Some States do not deserve criticism.

              Some States deserve destruction.

              The south in the US civil war: deserved to be destroyed.

              Nazi Germany: deserved to be destroyed.

              All apartheid ethno-states: deserve to be destroyed.

              You don’t like that last one? Explain to me why Rhodesia should exist.

              It seems to me that people that think arguing for the destruction of apartheid ethnostates is wrong think that way because they are racist against brown people.

          • Wandjina@lemm.ee
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            1 day ago

            I guess it’s less about freedom of speech and more about not giving fascistic governments ammunition to eradicate Lemmy and instances like this one.

            I am 100% certain that intelligence agencies are already monitoring this social network. Going against the status quo necessitates restraint regarding certain thoughts.

            I’d argue you can still say these things, but you need to word them wisely. We have to remember they have all the power from the medias to the judicial system.

            It’s an era in which they can easily manufacture consent to do whatever they want against what is deem a threat.

            • Count042@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              Probably the only non-evil response.

              It fails the ‘all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing’ test.

              It fails the ‘If I was in Nazi Germany, I would have resisted’ test.

              But I suspect that that isn’t the reason used by [email protected]

              I would guess that he would have supported Rhodesia if his government said that to oppose them was racist against white people.

        • Count042@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          You edited to add ‘nowadays’.

          What a cowardly edit.

          How was it okay to back the terrorist group ANC (Nelson Mandela was a convicted terrorist) and call for the fall of the Apartheid South African government in the 80’s, yet not okay to call for the downfall of the Apartheid ethnostate that Nelson Mandela said the concentration camp they created (Gaza) was worse then any of the Bantustans created by Apartheid South Africa?

          What Israel is doing is quantitatively worse then Apartheid South Africa. Why was calling for the end of that government okay?

          $5 says you’re too much of a coward to answer that question, even if only to yourself.

        • germanymodgenapo@lemmy.cafe
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          1 day ago

          Denying the existence of any state is a legitimate political opinion, especially when the given state is commiting genocide. You are the one lumping the people with their state by implying wanting the end of the later means willing harm to the former .

          I wouldn’t have to take anti censorship measure if you weren’t censoring