Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, leader of the European Realist Rebellion Front (MeRA25), which had nine representatives in the Greek parliament, was banned from speaking in Germany because of his ideas on Palestine. Varoufakis is prohibited from speaking at any event on German soil, including via video conference.
The former minister was invited to participate in a pro-Palestinian conference that was scheduled to begin on Friday, and it ended up being boycotted by the German police, who carried out three arrests in this context.
In addition to Varoufakis, the British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, Dean of the University of Glasgow, and the Palestinian historian Salman Abu Sitta, were the target of the same ban.
The Greek economist-turned-politician reported the ban on social media network X (formerly Twitter), where he took the opportunity to leave a link to the speech he would be giving at the conference.
“The German Ministry of the Interior issued”bitatejungverbot He wrote against me imposing a ban on all political activities. “Not only is it prohibited to visit Germany, but it also extends to participating via Zoom.” Who carries connection When you try to read the letter, you encounter an error message. But the same is available on YouTube.
The conference organizers, who called for a demonstration condemning the authorities’ actions, which took place on Saturday, published a statement on Sunday in which they accused the German government of “aiding and encouraging Israeli genocide” in Gaza, justifying this with “Israel’s right to self-defense,” and at the same time “Denial of any right to the Palestinians who were deprived of their rights and expelled for 76 years.”
The organizers announced that the conference (which was to last from Friday to Sunday) would be held on Sunday only, with entry only allowed to those who had purchased a ticket. According to the organization, 850 tickets will be sold. During the morning, they broadcast live via Zoom from the Berlin conference hall.
“Germany is the second largest supplier of genocidal weapons,” the conference justifies: “Since October 2023, the Federal Security Council has been formed, composed of Olaf Scholz, Wolfgang Schmidt, Annalena Baerbock, Boris Pistorius, Christian Lindner, Nancy Wieser, Marko Buschmann, Robert Habeck and Svenja Schulz, along with co-members Carsten Breuer, Dorte Dinger, Stephen Hebstreit and Gunter Sutter, increased arms shipments to Israel tenfold.
the #Palestine_Conference It was stormed by the police and blocked.
But we will not allow ourselves to be silent!Come to Neptonbrunnen in Berlin at 2pm to demonstrate against the ban on the Palestinian conference! ???? #We accuse Germany pic.twitter.com/FJD3bTQEjQ
– Palestina Conference (@wirklagenan) April 13, 2024
Last week, at the UN International Court of Justice, as part of Nicaragua's lawsuit, Germany denied that it was “aiding genocide in Gaza” by selling weapons to Israel. But the fact is that according to data from the German Ministry of Economy, in 2023 Germany sent a total of 326.5 million euros of military equipment and weapons to Israel.
On Saturday, justifying the cancellation of the conference, German Interior Minister Nancy Weisser praised the police work: “It is good that the Berlin police announced the harsh suppression of the so-called Palestinian conference in Berlin. “We follow the Islamic scene closely.”
The police force set up around the conference venue in Berlin was ostentatious, with more than 900 police officers deployed and numerous barricades restricting movement. The Berlin police were reinforced with officers from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to what the British newspaper “Daily Mail” reported Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. Authorities classified the event as a demonstration, and imposed the same type of restrictions normally imposed on pro-Palestinian protests.
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