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On Friday, the German police  cleared a pro-Palestinian protest camp outside the Reichstag, the Chancellery building in Berlin that was set up in early April. 

The  protesters had been at the building, hosting readings, discussions, and workshops. These activities have angered Berlinā€™s pro-Israel, authorities.

The crackdown followed almost daily incidents of harassment against activists at the .

Here and there, activists were banned from using any language other than German and English so that police can better monitor them. 

This included banning , Jewish comrades reading Hebrew texts, and even activities by Berlinā€™s Irish community.

µž±š³ŁĆ¤³Ł¾±²µ³Ü²Ō²µ²õ±¹±š°ł²ś“Ē³Ł: The draconian travel bans reserved for ISIS

A couple of weeks earlier, German police violently shut down the Palestine Congress in Berlin and slapped travel bans on the likes of Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah and .

These scary bans issued by the Interior Ministry, called , are a rare last resort typically reserved for Islamic State operatives.

Commenting on the ban, Alexander Gorski, a member of the Palestine Congressā€™s legal team, the federal policeā€™s actions as ā€œa new level of repression which until recently was unthinkable.ā€

Gorski went on to explain how the German governmentā€™s pro-Zionist raison dā€™Ć©tat has increasingly weakened basic democratic freedoms enshrined in the , particularly the .

Germany's dark turn into  with the severe state repression against Palestinian solidarity in Germany is not news to pro-Palestine activists; but since October 7, the world has started to notice something is rotten in the state of Germany. 

The solidarity group Irish Bloc Berlin have sent an to Irelandā€™s ambassador to Germany, which describes how ā€œthe Berlin police imposed an ad-hoc and constitutional ban on the use of the Irish language, and the assembly of Irish people in groups of two or more.ā€

In the letter, there is a strong demand to raise the ban with the Berlin Senate and the cityā€™s police commissioner.

Social media users have also been with ā€œusing anti-constitutional and terrorist symbols,ā€ citing the slogan ā€œFrom RISA to the Spree, Palestine will be Free.ā€

German police have charged someone with ā€œusing anti-constitutional and terrorist symbolsā€ for posting ā€œFrom RISA (chicken shop) to the Spree (river), Palestine will be freeā€ on Instagram

ā€” James Jackson (@derJamesJackson)

This substitute chant to Berlinā€™s ā€œFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be freeā€ has offered no protection from persecution by the capitalā€™s increasingly Orwellian state apparatus.

At an held the day after police forcefully intervened at the Palestine Congress, Wieland Hoban, chair of , exposed the level of state intimidation against conference participants, comparing it to the tactics of ā€œorganised crime.ā€

ā€œAre these the methods of the mafia or methods of democracy?ā€ he the assembled press.

This comparison to organised crime comes from what happened at the Palestine Congress. Videos online show police entering the venueā€™s control room to during a speech by Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta. Even though organisers tried to give them access, the police still disrupted the event. This type of behaviour is of both the police and the mob, who often damage property to "send a message."

Police have interrupted the Palestine Congress in Berlin halfway through a video message by Ghassan Abu Sitta and now cut the power

ā€” RuairĆ­ Casey (@Ruairi_Casey)

Considering these events, the hierarchical structure of the German security state resembles that of a , with a boss and underboss at the top, caporegimes in the middle, and foot soldiers at the bottom.

Media complicity

One of journalismā€™s main responsibilities is to hold those in power accountable. However, In Germany, mainstream media has consistently aligned with the government in providing cover for Israelā€™s actions in Gaza.

Leading up to the Palestine Congress, Berlinā€™s major news outlets spent significant time and effort in discrediting the event and its participants. Der Tagesspiegel labelled it a ā€œā€ attended by ā€œ,ā€ while taz, once known for its people-centric journalism, echoed state propaganda and displayed troubling signs of by portraying individual speakers and organisers as sympathisers of terrorism and antisemitism.

Media attacks against the Occupy Against Occupation camp have been even more vicious, showing how anti-Palestinian racism has brought together news outlets with different political views to Israelā€™s public relations. The right-wing tabloid Bild, known for its conspiracy theories, has mocked the camp as a gathering of ā€œ,ā€ labelling them as ā€œā€ and ā€œ.ā€ Meanwhile, Der Tagesspiegel has matched this racist reporting by accusing protesters of .

The collaboration between the state and media in Germany is evident, with police secretly allowing non-accredited members of anti-Palestinian news organisations into spaces like the Palestine Congress. This reality undermines the Fourth Estateā€™s as an independent watchdog against government abuses of power.

More than six months have passed since Israel decided to start a . Germany has supported , making it one of its most loyal backers in continental Europe. Despite from around the world, and facing complicity in genocide case at the ICJ, Germany continues to back the wrong side of history, even if it means heading towards authoritarianism at home.

Sacrificing the freedoms of its citizens for the sake of protecting Israel seems a price Germany, like the United States, is willing to pay.

Timo Al-Farooq is a freelance journalist based in Berlin, Germany.

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of °®Āžµŗ, its editorial board or staff.