Leaked emails show German officials pressing staff into deporting pro-Palestine activists

Leaked internal communications reveal that German authorities have been pressuring immigration staff to deport pro-Palestine activists, despite a lack of criminal conviction.

The leaked emails, obtained by investigative journalists and shared with legal advocates, show that Berlin officials have been seeking to expel four activists who had allegedly participated in a pro-Palestine “occupation” at a Berlin university.

The individuals, three European Union citizens and one United States national, have not been convicted of any crime.

One immigration employee initially refused to proceed with the deportation orders due to legal and ethical concerns, but was reportedly overruled and ultimately complied under administrative pressure.

Pro-Palestine activists facing deportation condemn German state repression

Two Irish and one Polish national, and a US citizen, have appealed against an order asking them to leave Germany over their participation in a pro-Palestinian university protest.

Observer say the episode adds to growing concerns that the German government is resorting to politically motivated deportations to suppress dissent against its entrenched stance in favor of the Israeli regime as well as its unwavering political and military support for Tel Aviv, even throughout the regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide against the Gaza Strip.

‘We are being made an example of’

One of the targeted individuals, speaking to press under condition of anonymity, said, “We are being made an example of to intimidate the pro-Palestine movement in Germany.”

Legal proceedings by one of the affected activists have, meanwhile, temporarily halted their deportation.

The foursome insist that their actions were peaceful expressions of solidarity with the people of Gaza, in line with a global movement of student-led university protests across the United States, Europe, and beyond.

The protests have demanded an end to the war and a simultaneous suffocating siege that the Israeli regime has been deploying against Gaza, and called for academic institutions to divest from companies complicit in Israeli occupation and aggression.

‘Staatsräson over justice’

German authorities have been trying to justify their actions using the term “Staatsräson” -- a doctrine of “state interest” that has, in practice, overridden both public morality and legal norms in defense of unconditional support for the Israeli regime.

A recent report also documented how Germany had increasingly blurred the lines between anti-Zionism, which is opposition to the Western-backed Israeli colonial projects in the West Asia region, and anti-Semitism, weaponizing Berlin’s historical guilt concerning its massacres of Jewish people under Nazis, to silence opposition to Israeli war crimes.

Critics argue that the policy has created a hostile environment for political activism, especially in support of Palestinians’ rights.

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Numerous activists, academics, artists, and journalists have already faced deportations, visa cancellations, professional sanctions, and public smear campaigns across the Western states that are supportive of the regime, especially the US, for opposing the genocide.

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