Germany’s political and media elite surely haven’t shied away from criticizing Donald Trump’s authoritarianism. There have been countless scathing op-eds, alongside Green Party minister Cem Özdemir denouncing “threats and challenges to the very values that make the West and democracy what they are.”
But for all the handwringing about the erosion of democratic norms across the ocean, there’s little outcry over Germany’s own rapid authoritarian turn against those who stand up for Palestinians. Parallels to the United States, where centrists also long paved the way for later right-wing crackdowns, have mostly gone ignored.
German repression of pro-Palestine activism is nothing new. Yet it has now hit a disturbing new low as Berlin’s state government moved to deport four foreign residents, including three European Union citizens, for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. Berlin immigration authorities have used vague accusations of antisemitism and support of terrorism to justify moving to deport the activists, though the Intercept reports that none of the four have been convicted of crimes.
It’s an escalation of an already draconian approach to pro-Palestinian speech. It also highlights how the political center is itself tearing up civil and political rights even as it bleats incessantly about the threat of Germany’s own ascendant far right. Such crackdowns against pro-Palestinian protesters themselves fuel the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) — playing into its anti-immigration wedge issue and setting a precedent sure to be brutally intensified if the AfD continues its steady march to power.
Yet all this seems to be lost on Germany’s increasingly authoritarian center. Such forces seem even less able to admit that…
Auteur: Dave Braneck
