[News] Palestinian Journalist Banned from Speaking in Germany

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Palestinian-Journalist-banned-speaking-in-Germany-20190702-0024.html 



  Palestinian Journalist Banned from Speaking in Germany

Published 2 July 2019
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The Palestinian-Canadian journalist, Khaled Barakat,  was blocked from 
speaking about Palestine at a solidarity event held on June 22 in the 
German capital, Berlin.

    /*RELATED: Pro-Palestine Activists Occupy Israeli Weapons Factory in
    UK
    <https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Pro-Palestine-Activists-Occupy-Israeli-Weapons-Factory-in-UK--20190702-0011.html>*/

Barakat had been requested to intervene in an event about Palestine 
where he was supposed to speak on the liberation of Palestine, the 
implication of this liberation for the Arab world, the Donald Trump’s 
Middle East peace plan 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Hundreds-Protest-Trump-Conference-at-Bahraini-Embassy-in-Iraq-20190628-0001.html>, 
among other issues. German authorities claimed his speeches could be a 
threat to the relations between the country and Israel.

“As soon as we left the U-Bahn [train] station nearest the venue, my 
wife and I noticed heavy police presence in the area, including multiple 
vans full of police,” Barakat told Electronic Intifada.

He was then approached by a group of police officers who told him he 
could not speak at the event and then took him and his wife to the 
police station. Officials then presented him a document issued by the 
Berlin Foreigners Registration Office, prohibiting him from any 
political activity, including participation in specific events and 
presence at gatherings and meetings until he leaves the country.

If the journalist fails to respect these conditions, he could face up to 
one year in prison, the document indicated.

Authorities justified these drastic measures saying that the Palestinian 
journalist’s ideas and political activism “pose a threat to public 
safety,” and “impair and endanger the peaceful coexistence of Germans 
and foreigners.” They added that Germany’s relationship with Israel 
could be altered and “considerably endangered” if they were to allow him 
to speak.

The official document also noted that Barakat might be a member of the 
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is listed as 
a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European 
Union.

“If you look at the campaigns being carried out by Israel and the 
Ministry of Strategic Affairs against Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions 
(BDS) 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/BDS-Activists-Go-on-Trial-in-Germany-over-Protesting-Israeli-Pinkwashing-20190305-0012.html>organizations 
around the world, or Students for Justice in Palestine in the U.S. they 
are trying their best to criminalize all movements for Palestine or even 
human rights organizations by using so-called connections to Hamas and 
the PFLP,” Barakat said.

The eight pages official text then listed a number of speeches given by 
Barakat but eventually offered no example of the journalist’s alleged 
anti-semitism. Despite it, the text reads, that “the public should be 
protected from your expected anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements."

“The same forces advocating for and issuing this political ban against 
me are involved in repressing Jewish voices that criticize Zionism, 
Israeli policy and German policy on Israel,” Barakat said, explaining 
German government is trying to impede a united front embracing people 
from Arab and Jewish communities in Berlin willing to advocate for and 
promote the liberation of Palestine and its people's human rights.

The group Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, for instance, 
had its bank account closed, two Jewish activists are currently on trial 
along with a Palestinian after they interrupted an Israeli politician 
supporting Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, among many other cases.

Earlier this year, the Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh was prohibited 
from speaking in Berlin for International Women’s Day and was then 
forced to leave the country. All these facts added to the recent 
resolution by the German Parliament to libel the BDS movement as 
anti-semitic, give a certain idea of the environment faced by 
pro-Palestinian activists in Germany and more generally in Europe.

-- 
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863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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