Anti-Israel protesters march in Germany, March 26, 2025. Photo: Sebastian Willnow/dpa via Reuters Connect
German authorities have issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in raucous anti-Israel protests, stating that they “pose a threat to public order,” according to local media.
The German State Office for Immigration has issued “residence termination notices” against two Irish citizens, a Polish citizen, and an American citizen for their participation in pro-Hamas demonstrations, including a sit-in at Berlin’s central train station, a road blockade, and the occupation of a building at the Free University of Berlin (FU), the German newspaper BILD reported.
The four deportees, identified as Hamas sympathizers, have until April 21 to leave Germany or risk being forcibly removed.
According to the deportation notice, they “pose a threat to public order” and “indirectly supported” terrorist groups like Hamas.
An appeal against the decision has been filed with the Supreme Court, according to a spokesperson for the German Senate Department for the Interior.
Last year, 40 individuals led an anti-Israel protest at FU, attempting to break into university buildings. Although the attempt to occupy the building was brief, as police quickly arrived and dispersed the group, the protesters were able to destroy furniture, computers, and other university property, while also spraying pro-Hamas slogans on the staircases and facade of the president’s office.
“According to the FU, the employees who were in the building were physically and psychologically threatened by those who had entered,” Berlin State Secretary for Higher Education and Research, Henry Marx, said in a statement at the time.
“The occupiers attempted to forcibly remove the employees from their offices,” Marx said. “The attackers were also masked and armed with axes, saws, crowbars, and clubs.”
One of the deportees, 29-year-old Irish citizen Shane O’Brien, an organizer of anti-Israel protests in Berlin, has several outstanding charges against him.
He was previously charged with insulting a police officer after allegedly calling him a “fascist,” but he was acquitted. The deportation order against him also highlights his expression of antisemitic views.
Roberta Murray, a 31-year-old Irish citizen, was another of the four deportees. She has been accused of using “banned slogans,” including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which German authorities prohibited last year for promoting the ethnic cleansing of Jews.
According to BILD, the criminal investigations into the four foreigners are still underway. Murray and O’Brien have both denied the allegations made against them.
While legal representatives and experts have expressed concerns that the deportation orders violate civil liberties for EU citizens in Germany, as neither individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, German law does not require a conviction for deportation.
Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin, for example, surpassed the total for all of the prior year and reached the highest annual count on record, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).
The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.
