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Familien für Palästina

Families for Palestine

The Left Berlin
02/04/2025

Familien für Palästina is a collective of people united by our commitment to fight for a free Palestine. Besides that, care work is a common fact of our lives – whether it is care for children or for others in our community. Our notion of families includes single-parent-families, human-animal bonds and queer people. It is also aspirational: We strive towards a world where colonial and imperialist border regimes, prisons and capitalism no longer determine how we organize our intimate relations, our livelihoods and our communities.

We are a mixed group – Palestinians and non-Palestinians. We recognize that the struggle for a free Palestine overlaps with the struggle against structural racism and imperialism everywhere. Many of us have also been active in different movements and communities for many years and have experiences with migrant, anti-racist, refugee, queer, Mad/psych survivor and intersectional feminist struggles.

We started out by going to protests together. We try to make protest spaces welcoming to children when we can. All children are our children. We believe that fostering multigenerational community strengthens the Palestine movement as a whole. That is as much about including young ones and their caregivers as it is about honoring the experiences, lessons and sacrifices of the older generations.

We practice mutual aid. We work closely with Infinity Team in Gaza, a group who came together to provide basic necessities (hygiene, food, water) and financial support among the displaced people. They also organize educational and emotional support activities for children. We are full of admiration for the creativity and determination they have shown to provide some relief in the most difficult situations. Being in direct contact with them is nourishing us to practice hope and not succumb to despair. The money that we raise at our events supports their work. We have organized several fundraisers with different thematic focuses, always offering activities for children as well as youth and adults. Our fundraisers are very successful thanks to a network of collaborators and supporters, especially Food4Palestine.

We have collaborated with many other organizations in Berlin as well: the Internationalist Queer Pride Berlin, pa_allies, Palinale, HeArt of Gaza exhibitions, Frauen Machen Druck, Al Festival, Gaza Komitee and Görli Winter Market among others.

We also organize political education for children and families in our communities, because our schools and the vast majority of German media convey dehumanizing and racist ideas about Palestine. Our community’s children – whether they are Palestinian, Muslim, Black, Jewish, … — are growing up with the knowledge that Palestine is a rich culture with a long history, and that fighting for Palestine is an urgent cry of justice. The Palestinian resistance is an inspiration for all of us.

News from Berlin and Germany, 2nd April 2025

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany

The Left Berlin

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Berlin MPs want rapid partnership with Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is to become Berlin’s 19th twin city. All parliamentary groups spoke in favour of this at the most recent session of the state parliament. The CDU and the SPD had tabled a motion calling on the Senate to press ahead with talks already underway. For many MPs, this is not going fast enough. Jian Omar (Green Party) called for words to be followed by actions and communicated to Kai Wegner (CDU) that town twinning was not a ‘trophy colleting’. In the past, the Senate had often announced partnerships without bringing them to life. Source: tagesspiel

“Pain grip”: climate activist wins legal dispute against Berlin police

Berlin police officers unjustly used the so-called “pain grip” (schmerzgriff) on a climate activist during a sit-in blockade. This was decided by the Berlin Administrative Court. The presiding judge Wilfried Peters explained the decision, considering the behaviour of the police officersas disproportionate. The plaintiff Lars Ritter had taken part in a sit-in blockade by the “Last Generation” climate group on 20 April 2023. The court said that the police officers could have simply carried him off the road and that he was not expected to resist. The police intervention was filmed at the time and video clips were published on the internet. Source: tagesspiel

Employees of Charité subsidiary CFM go on indefinite strike on Wednesday

CFM employees no longer want to be the “piggy bank of the Charité”, going on indefinite strike from Wednesday. This was announced by trade union ver.di. The CFM (Charité Facility Management) is responsible for patient transport, cleaning, catering and technology, among other things. Ver.di demands the pay of the CFM employees to be harmonised with that of Charité staff, stating additionally that they works under significantly worse conditions. The employees of the Charité subsidiary had gone on warning strike several times in recent weeks. The indefinite strike will begin with the early shift this Wednesday. The union is expecting restrictions in patient care. Source: rbb

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Expatriation because of anti-Semitism?

The coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD are said to have repeatedly led to heated arguments. Particularly in dealing with migration and integration issues, the negotiating partners’ positions were apparently very far apart. Dirk Wiese (SPD), himself part of the “Home Affairs, Law, Migration and Integration” working group, affirmed the SPD had managed to ensure that the possibility of dual citizenship remained in place. This topic has generated many discussions. In future, being identified as a “terrorist supporter” or “anti-Semite” might be enough to revoke a German passport. But how are these terms even defined? Source: dw

Racism in Germany: the norm, not the exception

In Germany, more than half of Black people and Muslims have experienced discrimination, according to a new study by the National Discrimination and Racism Monitor. In one of the most comprehensive data surveys on racism and discrimination in Germany, researcher surveyed almost 10,000 people across the country. The results of the latest report from March 2025 show that those who are seen by others as being immigrants or Muslims are most affected — regardless of whether they actually are or not. “Experiences of discrimination do not happen randomly,” said Aylin Mengi, co-author of the study. Source: dw

Anti-Palestinian repression in German companies: the case of Zalando

On December 5, 2024 the labour court in Berlin (Arbeitsgericht Berlin) settled the case of Mohamad S. supported by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC). Mohamad is marketing professional and was working at Zalando SE in Berlin as a Senior Media Testing manager but received a termination of his contract following his expression of solidarity with Palestine. Before his dismissal, Mohamad suffered moral harassment and was also repeatedly pressured to resign from the company. When the attempts to push him out of the company failed, he finally received a termination letter in June 2024 and decided to file a lawsuit. Furthermore, Mohamad filed an anti-discrimination complaint case. Source: ELSC

Egyptian in Göttingen has no right to naturalisation

Göttingen rejected the application for naturalisation of an Egyptian, because the Ministry of the Interior of Lower Saxony had expressed security concerns, pointing out that, according to information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the applicant had been active for several years in communities and organisations with links to the Muslim Brotherhood. The plaintiff did not accept the decision and took the matter to court. He stated he avoided any group which opposed the basic order of the Federal Republic of Germany. The applicant travelled to Germany in 2000 to study, followed a few months later by his family. Source: hna

Lauterbach wants to equip healthcare system for “military conflicts”

Federal Health Minister KarlLauterbach (SPD) wants to better equip the German healthcare system against crises and military conflicts, according to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. He expects a draft bill to be presented in the summer. Lauterbach added: “We also need a turning point for the healthcare system. Especially as Germany could become a hub for the care of injured and wounded people from other countries in the event of an alliance.” The Association of Democratic Doctors stated that the organisation would oppose “further militarisation of the healthcare system with a loud no”. Source: Ärzteblatt

Cannabis could be banned in Germany again

A year after the start of the partial legalisation of cannabis in Germany, its withdrawal is apparently still an issue in the coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD. The Bavarian CSU in particular is piling on the pressure to abolish that partial legalisation of cannabis: “We want to reverse the traffic light government’s mistake and ban cannabis again,” Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told the newspaper “Augsburger Allgemeine”. The state of Bavaria is currently the only federal state without any legal cannabis cultivation outside of private residences. Source: mdr

Political Deportations of EU Citizens in Germany

Statement by the Irish Bloc Berlin

The Left Berlin
01/04/2025

Four activists – two Irish citizens, one Polish citizen and one US citizen – have been ordered to leave Germany by April 21, 2025 with one reason: protesting Germany’s complicity in the genocide in Palestine. Berlin’s Interior Ministry has issued deportation orders based on accusations of “antisemitism” and support for “terrorist organisations” – claims entirely without evidence or legal basis. None of the four have a criminal record.

Even Berlin’s immigration office (LEA) initially rejected the orders, recognising they lacked legal grounds, but was pressured into compliance by the Interior Ministry, as evidenced by email threads obtained by the activists’ legal defence team. The deportation orders were ultimately signed by LEA Director Engelhard Mazanke.

This unprecedented move is part of a frightening broader crackdown. Since October 2023, Germany has frozen asylum claims from Gaza, despite German courts acknowledging that life in Gaza is under direct threat. At the same time, racist media coverage manufactures consent for deportations targeting Palestinians and other racialised communities.

From mass arrests and bogus charges to the use of migration law to bypass the courts, Germany is ramping up its efforts to silence pro-Palestinian voices. Now, it has escalated by revoking one student visa and three EU citizens’ right to freedom of movement. This mirrors tactics used by the Trump administration, but similar repression now threatens activists in Greece too – the normalisation of the disregard for fundamental rights is an existential threat to the EU as a whole.

These deportations are a political attack on an entire movement. By removing these activists, Germany is targeting the broader community – especially Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims – who dare to speak out.

The deportation letters cite Germany’s Staatsräson, a doctrine that demands unconditional support for Israel. That doctrine is now being used to justify repression, whitewash war crimes, and silence criticism of a 77-year campaign of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and the current mass slaughter, displacement, and starvation of Palestinians.

The Irish Bloc stands in full solidarity with the four facing deportation. We reject this misuse of the law, denounce Germany’s complicity in genocide, support all asylum seekers and victims of Germany’s racist immigration policy who have had their residencies revoked for activism and advocacy, and support the fight to overturn these orders in the courts.

From Gaza to Berlin, the struggle continues. No deportation can stop this movement.

🇮🇪Saoirse don Phalaistín🇵🇸

@IrishBlocBerlin

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