Free speech is being curtailed from Boston to Berlin
Demonstrators gather in Berlin to protest last week against the possible deportation of four foreign pro-Palestine activists from Germany. The four activists - two from Ireland, one from Poland and one from the United States - face charges relating to their participation in a protest sit-in at Berlin's Free University last year over Israel's invasion of Gaza. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
There has been much discussion about the introduction of tariffs by the US president and whether these moves finally prove that Ireland’s interests and values lie closer to Berlin than Boston, in Mary Harney’s famous phrasing.
It would certainly seem that values upheld by Ireland, particularly in relation to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, may no longer be applicable in Boston or elsewhere in the US for that matter, as students are picked off the streets and detained for expressing their opinion.
What I have seen emerging out of Berlin, however, makes me doubt that these values are being upheld in Germany either and leads me to hope that we hold them dear enough here in Ireland to chart our own course.
Most of all, developments in the US, Germany and other countries once again highlight how states pick and choose what elements of international human rights law they abide by, rather than upholding universally recognised rights regardless of whose rights are being promoted and regardless of by whom.
In Berlin last week I met with over a dozen young people who have faced harassment, intimidation, violence and/or criminal charges because of their peaceful protests demonstrating solidarity with Palestine.
There have been over 9,000 criminal cases opened against protesters since the murderous Hamas rampage in Israel on October 7, 2023, as the state apparently tries to mute criticism of the Israeli response and of Germany’s support of that response through criminalisation.
Individuals reported being pulled out of protests by police for calling for ‘an end to genocide’ in reference to the Israeli bombardment of Palestinians which has resulted in the deaths of over 50,000 people, the majority of whom are women and children.
A young Jewish person said fellow Jewish activists had been arrested multiple times for holding signs at demonstrations, including one saying, “This is a Jew against genocide”.
Young women told me how they had been placed in ‘pain grips’ by police as they conducted sit-ins, whereby they were dragged away by their nostrils or had their arms or fingers bent in such a way as to force them up and out of the protest area.
Amnesty International Germany is obtaining legal advice before holding protests against the war to ensure that their actions or slogans are not misinterpreted as contravening the law.
The organisation receives a list of actions they may not take before such protests from the state authorities, which has included the use of slogans beginning with “from the river to the sea…” and including “from the river to the sea we demand equality”.
Many of those I spoke with drew comparisons between the response to the massively disruptive farmers’ protests in Germany in 2023-2024 but which resulted in few, if any, criminal cases, and the response to protests in solidarity with Palestine.
Furthermore, police have appeared far more forceful in their treatment of protesters calling for a just peace in Palestine than they have been in relation to protesters demonstrating on other issues.
In February, there were reports of police officers assaulting protesters after they chanted pro-Palestine slogans in Arabic, while one lawyer who is representing a number of those charged told me how one of his clients was punched in her face by a police officer, resulting in a broken cheekbone.
Another student recounted being punched in the solar plexus by police as he formed part of a human chain to protect a university sit-in.
This treatment is taking place in a context where media and politicians all too quickly equate legitimate criticism of Israeli military conduct and German government backing with anti-semitism or support for Hamas, allowing all anti-war protesters to be portrayed as ‘extremists’ or representing security threats, as appears to be the case in that of the two Irish citizens, Shane O'Brien and Bert Murray, who are facing deportation from the country.
Given the ethnic background of many of those involved in the Palestinian solidarity movement, these actions are helping soften the public for the introduction of increased restrictions on immigration at a time when a more conservative coalition government is about to take power.
Amidst all the calls for EU unity in the face of US tariffs, it is essential that member states maintain their independence to criticise the undermining of EU values by fellow members.
The stifling of freedom of assembly by anti-war protesters in Germany must be called out for what it is: unfair, unwarranted and unacceptable.
- Mary Lawlor is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders
