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.”

  • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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    3 days ago

    They are naming the people being deported, maybe one of our German friends can dig up some German articles with their names?

    The four people slated for deportation, Cooper Longbottom, Kasia Wlaszczyk, Shane O’Brien, and Roberta Murray, are citizens of, respectively, the U.S., Poland, and in the latter two cases Ireland.

      • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 days ago

        Thanks. It is possible the American student contacted TheIntercept first. If TheIntercept is the first source then German media will likely pick up the story soon.

        I also searched for the lawyer

        “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.”

        Apparently Alexander Gorski is the same person who overturned Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s ban from Germany which does lend a lot of credibility unless TheIntercept is straight up making up quotes from people out of thin air.

        The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) announced in a social media post on Tuesday that it, along with lawyer Alexander Gorski and the European Legal Support Centre, had successfully challenged the travel ban imposed on Abu Sitta by Germany.

    • Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 days ago

      Good call. I’ve tried searching for their namens and some other related keywords in german but couldn’t find any secondary sources. Only two other newssites that basically copied the intecept verbatim. So for now I wouldn’t believe it

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        2 days ago

        The first thing I do when negative news about Israel is published is question the source as well. Israel and Germany would never violate international law.

        • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Isn’t it weird that all these individuals are coming in droves to the comments to cast doubts on the veracity of an article from reputable journal? Almost feels like a coordinated effort.

          Edit: Thread on europe experienced a similar situation.

          • Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com
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            2 days ago

            Nope I just thought it was wird that no other oulet was reporting in this. Since then they have picked up the story and got confirmation on the story indepentanly. But it was weird that something of this magnitude wasn’t picked up by anyone immeadeatly. I also would have believed it if the intercept linked to some sources but they didn’t. Probably because there were none that were public ally accessible. It sometimes happens that newsstorys get out that are false so I’ve made it a rule of mine to not trust story’s of significant magnitude when there is only one source.

            • GreyAlien@lemm.ee
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              1 day ago

              Never seen an other story as downplayed as this one though.

              You weren’t the only one to discuss the credibility of an already proven reliable journal.

              It shifts the conversation from talking about the deportation of EU citizens to “this looks fake”, “it’s misinformation”… also this post has been heavily downvoted.

              Just weird.

              • Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com
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                1 day ago

                For me personally I can say that I do not read the intercept often enough to have a grasp on how reliable they are. So the publishers name and it’s associated clout alone wasn’t enough for me to believe the story’s content. If you are more familiar with them then maybe that’s why our initial reactions to the story were different. Imho it’s ok to focus on a storys credibility first before discusing it’s content. Even if the contents message transports the right message. In hindsight it was bad of couse but hindsight is 20/20. Anyone who down votes this just because it may be false is overreacting though since it’s understandable that the intercept couldn’t link to any external sources here.