Berlin’s immigration authorities are moving to deport four young foreign residents on allegations related to participation in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, an unprecedented move that raises serious concerns over civil liberties in Germany.
The deportation orders, issued under German migration law, were made amid political pressure and over internal objections from the head of the state of Berlin’s immigration agency.
The internal strife arose because three of those targeted for deportation are citizens of European Union member states who normally enjoy freedom of movement between E.U. countries. None of the four has been convicted of any crimes.
“What we’re seeing here is straight out of the far right’s playbook,” said Alexander Gorski, a lawyer representing two of the protesters. “You can see it in the U.S. and Germany, too: Political dissent is silenced by targeting the migration status of protesters.”
It’s not under EU law. Freedom of movement for EU citizens is a legally binding treaty obligation.
The TFEU has a provision in section 45 that allows member states to limit this freedom, e.g. for security reasons. It will be up to a court to rule whether a sufficient reason was present in these cases, but a state can legally strip you of these rights.
There’s no way calling for an end to a genocide (or even a war) is sufficient reason, and they likely know that. So it is, in fact, illegal.
Denying Israel it’s existence can be a sufficient reason. But we both are merely guessing, since we all do not know what actually happened/was said.
No it’s not what the hell? Or, well, if it then the EU is doomed because that’s not how a democracy is supposed to function.
It is part of the German ‘reason of State’, as also mentioned in the article. Hence, denying Israel it’s existence is a very very bad idea in Germany.
staatsräson, as the article also states, is not a meaningful legal category
That’s what the courts will determine now, I guess.
And while Staatsräson itself might not be a meaningful legal category, chanting for the elimination of Israel’s existence can already be punishable within the existing StGB, even without the currently discussed additions to it to explicitly punish calls for the elimination of nations.