To save its democracy and respect the Holocaust, Germany must stop blindly backing Israel | Opinion
www.haaretz.com
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/28684388

In a recent escalation, Berlin authorities ordered the deportation of four pro-Palestine activists – three EU citizens and one American, none of whom were convicted of a crime. Rather, citing Staatsräson, their threatened deportation was for holding anti-Israel views. Although one of these deportations was later deemed invalid by the Berlin Administrative court, the move followed 18 months of cancellations, bans and dismissals of artists, academics and speakers – Palestinians, Jews, Israelis and others – for speaking out against Israel.

In a cruel historical twist, Germany, the perpetrator of the Holocaust, has enabled what numerous observers, including Amnesty International, have identified as a genocide of Palestinians. Rather than learning a universal historical lesson that applies to all people, Germany chose a particularist interpretation of its history, centered on the state’s relation to Israel.

The recent deportation order suggest a dramatic escalation in the influence of Staatsräson, which now seems to extends beyond foreign policy. For example, one controversial clause in a draft of the coalition agreement leaked last month proposes stripping dual nationals of German citizenship if they are found to be “supporters of terrorism, antisemites or extremists who jeopardize the free democratic order.”

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    252·
    7 days ago

    The people in question are not convicted of any crime. Also the state attorneys are not prosecuting the people in question for violent crimes at the event in question. Rather they are prosecuted for “freeing prisoners” because they were outside the building when police brought out people it arrested inside. one of the people is investigated for calling a policemen fascist.

    See https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/abschiebung-ausweisung-palaestina-aktivisten-rechtswidrig-eugh-freizuegigkeit-berlin for a more neutral description by a legal magazine, which bothers to make proper distinctions:

    Die Darstellungen des LKA in den Ausweisungsbescheiden lesen sich weniger brutal, aber immer noch bedrohlich. Hier ist die Rede von 20 Personen, die sich Zugang zum Gebäude verschafft, dort Wände beschmiert und die Technik zerstört hätten. Sie sollen Brecheisen bzw. “Kuhfüße” bei sich geführt haben. Hiermit sollen sie versucht haben, eine Tür zu einem Raum aufzubrechen, in dem sich ein stark verängstigter FU-Mitarbeiter verschanzt hatte. Äxte, Sägen und Knüppel werden nicht erwähnt. Im Anschluss an die Besetzung kam es zu Festnahmen. Zehn Verdächtige – unter ihnen auch die vier Aktivist:innen – sollen versucht haben, dies zu verhindern.

    Roughly translates to:

    "The description of the events by the LKA (state criminal investigators) used in the deportation notices is reading less brutal but still threatening. It describes 20 people which empowered themselves entry to the building, vandalised walls and destroyed technical equipment. They are alleged to have carried crowbars, with which they (the 20 people who entered the building) tried to open a room, in which a strongly scared FU employee had barricaded himself. Axes, Saws and clubs are not mentioned. Subsequent to the occupation, multiple arrests occured. Ten suspects -among them the four activists- are alleged to tried to prevent the arrests.

    So the police investigators are not claiming the people to have participated in the occupation, but rather to try to prevent arrests that were made because of the occupation.

    The next Paragraph:

    Im Ausweisungsbescheid gegen US-Bürger:in Longbottom ist dies der einzige aufgelistete Sachverhalt. Bei den anderen dreien kommen im Zusammenhang mit anderen Protestaktionen weitere Ermittlungen wegen demonstrationstypischer Delikte hinzu. Das sind etwa Widerstand gegen (§ 113 Strafgesetzbuch, StGB) oder tätlicher Angriff auf Vollstreckungsbeamte (§ 114 StGB) sowie Äußerungsdelikte wie Beleidigung (§ 185 StGB), Volksverhetzung (§ 130 StGB) oder Verwenden von Kennzeichen verfassungswidriger Organisationen (§ 86a StGB). Den Befreiungsversuch nach der FU-Besetzung wertet die Polizei als Gefangenenbefreiung (§ 120 StGB).

    Translates to:

    "The deportation notice against US-Citizen Longbotton only lists this occurence. For the other activists other occurences in relation to different protest actions are mentioned as being under investigation. These are “typical for demonstrations” such as resisting or attacking police officers (§ 113-114) and “Speak-Crime” (sorry for the bad translation) such as insults (§185), hate speech (§130) or using symbols of an unconstitutional organisation (§86a). The attempted prevention of arrests after the FU-occupation is considered by the police as freeing of prisoners (§120).

    So none of the people are investigated for violent crime in relation to the FU-occupation.

    The article further notes that the “typical for demonstrations” investigations do not warrant a deportation unless convicted and repeated. For the FU-occupation it is noted that this is more serious and could suffice for such a move, however the police reports only provide general descriptions rather than tying specific actions to the activists threatened with deportation.

    Long story short: At the time of the deportation notices none of the people were accused for violent crime in regard to the FU occupation. All of this was conjecture made by the interior ministry of the state of Berlin and a willfully or ignorantly complicit press

    • Quittenbrot@feddit.orgEnglish
      74·
      7 days ago

      Also the state attorneys are not prosecuting the people in question for violent crimes at the event in question.

      So none of the people are investigated for violent crime in relation to the FU-occupation.

      Are you sure? (German) source::

      Ob das Geschehen im Innern den Tatbestand des Landfriedensbruchs erfüllt, ist ebenfalls nicht gesichert. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Berlin teilte auf LTO-Anfrage jedoch mit, auch bei ihnen sei dieses Delikt vermerkt. Ein Ende der Ermittlungen sei aber noch nicht absehbar.

      Translation

      It is also not certain whether what happened inside the building constitutes a breach of the public peace [Landfriedensbruch]. However, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office informed LTO that this offense had also been recorded. However, an end to the investigation is not yet in sight. [deepl]

      E: formatting

      • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
        82·
        7 days ago

        As it explains further in your article in the next paragraph:

        Erforderlich ist für die §§ 125, 125a StGB, dass “Gewalttätigkeiten gegen Menschen oder Sachen” oder entsprechende Drohungen “aus einer Menschenmenge heraus mit vereinten Kräften” begangen werden, und zwar in einer die öffentliche Sicherheit gefährdenden Weise. Im Fall der Besetzung der Humboldt-Universität im Mai 2024 sei dieses Delikt nicht einmal angeklagt worden, sagt O’Briens Rechtsanwalt Benjamin Düsberg. Auch im Fall der Belagerung eines Fähranlegers zum Nachteil von Wirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck im Januar 2024 verneinte die Staatsanwaltschaft ein organisiertes Vorgehen.

        For the crimes of §§ 125, 125a StGB is is required that “acts of violence against people or property” or respective threats are made “from a crowd of people, working with unified/united force”, in such a way that it endangers public security. In regards to an occupation of the Humboldt-University in May 2024 this delict was not even accused, said O’Briens lawyer. In another case of people “besieging” a fairy carrier to the disadvantage of the federal minister of the economy Rober Habeck in January 2024 the state attorneys denied an organized action.

        For clarity for non Germans, the event mentioned regarding the minister occurred in a different state in Germany and was in relation to farmer protests against reducing subsidies on diesel fuel.

        So the question of “Landfriedensbruch” is in regards to the entirety of the events, by which then an individual participation could be claimed on the basis of being present. It does not require the individuals charged to actually have been violent or threatening violence. If they were part of an organized crowd from which violence was enacted or threatened that is considered enough.

        These kind of charges are often politically motivated, such as with charges and convictions surrounding the G20 summit and protests in Hamburg in 2017:

        https://www.dw.com/en/hamburg-g20-riots-polish-man-becomes-first-charged/a-40028143
        https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/30/prot-a30.html
        https://taz.de/Urteil-im-G20-Rondenbarg-Prozess/!6032364/

        • Quittenbrot@feddit.orgEnglish
          21·
          7 days ago

          Note that the lawyer specifically talks about an occupation of the HU in May, not the famously violent one of the FU in October that is discussed in the rest of the article.

          Also, the article states that it is currently still investigated by the public prosecutor, outcome unknown.

          Therefore, I find it difficult to claim that none of these persons is ‘investigated for violent crime in relation to the FU occupation’, Even if they should decide against ‘Landfriedensbruch’ specifically, something we don’t know, who’s to say it won’t be something else instead?

          E: formatting

    • Samskara@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      37·
      7 days ago

      Thank you for the article with more details.

      Calling resisting and attacking policemen and freeing of prisoners non-violent is a bit of a stretch though.

      • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
        131·
        7 days ago

        If you go into fetal position or “make yourself heavy” as police is arresting you, this is “resisting” policemen in Germany. So if a policemen beats you into your stomach and you fall to the ground, making yourself round as a result of the pain in your stomach, you will be charged as a violent offender.

        https://taz.de/G20-Urteil-im-Berufungsverfahren/!5567626/

    • nahostdeutschland@feddit.orgEnglish
      59·
      7 days ago

      I really, really don’t understand why we are getting bombarded with posts about those 4 people here. This is the 5th? 8th? 10th article that was posted in /c/europe about this? And it’s infuriating stupid. Germany “has to save its democracy and respect the Holocaust” by letting random people destroy their university buildings? Meanwhile there were some Palestinians in Gaza protesting against Hamas, with a great risk for themselves and their lives. Nobody here did care about this. Nothing those “activists” did will help in any way to solve the conflict. Nothing, absolutley nothing. Let’s not talk about stupid people doing stupid things for stupid reasons and let’s really not smear the history of the Holocaust by doing a comparison here. Kicking out some foreigners doing crimes is not the same as fucking murdering million people on an industrial scale.