The Irish Language Under Attack in Germany for Speaking Up for Palestine

This arrest wasn’t an isolated incident, it’s part of a broader campaign of intimidation, censorship, and criminalisation aimed at those who show solidarity with Palestine on German soil. Last month, two Irish pro-Palestine protesters were served with deportation orders for being involved in a demonstration, despite having no previous convictions. Just this week, Irish post punk band The Murder Capital had their Berlin and Cologne shows cancelled after venue staff barred them from displaying a Palestinian flag or a “Free Palestine” banner on stage. 

Germany is one of Israel’s closest allies, with support for the Israeli state deeply embedded in Staatsräson, a term which has been used to describe Germany’s perceived obligation to the state of Israel in reparation for the Holocaust. However, this alliance is not just symbolic, Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the U.S., accounting for nearly 30% of its imported weapons. Under the banner of fighting antisemitism, Germany has banned slogans such as “from the river to the sea”, the keffiyeh, flags, and even languages at pro-Palestinian protests, and police have violently cracked down on demonstrators. In Berlin alone, over 3,000 pro-Palestinian protesters have been investigated by authorities.

As a member of the Irish Bloc, a Berlin-based group of Irish activists, 25 year old Kitty from Dublin has seen firsthand how deep the repression runs, and how silence from the Irish state only reinforces it. We asked them about the day of the protest, the response from the Irish Embassy, and why Berlin’s reputation as a progressive city is rapidly unravelling. 

Has your activism made you a target of German state surveillance or repression?

The level of repression faced by the movement in Germany is almost impossible to describe unless you’ve experienced it firsthand. After the Irish Bloc formed last February, we were repeatedly taken aback by the lengths that the Berliner Polizei—acting on state orders—would go to intimidate us and suppress our dissent. But this isn’t unique to me or to us; for the past 19 months, anyone advocating for Palestinian liberation has faced similar, often worse, treatment. While I was arrested last month for speaking Irish, people have been arrested for speaking Arabic for well over a year. This stark disparity is why the Irish Bloc organised a Ciorcal Comhrá last April—to highlight the difference in how we, as predominantly white Irish EU citizens, were treated for speaking Irish, compared with how our comrades were treated simply for praying in Arabic during Ramadan, at the protest camp outside the Bundestag.

“While I was arrested last month for speaking Irish, people have been arrested for speaking Arabic for well over a year.”

Have you witnessed violence at the protests?

It’s difficult to give just one example of the brutality. I have been watching my friends being beaten up on a weekly basis for 18 months. People have been airlifted to hospital at the end of protests due to the violence perpetrated by the Berliner Polizei. Friends have had black eyes, bruising, bleeding, broken bones. The violence always shocks people back home. They message me in disbelief that police could behave in such a barbaric way. But this is not a failure of policing, it is policing functioning exactly as intended. The police are not here to protect people; they are here to protect the status quo and private property. Their violence is not surprising.

What is truly frightening is the silence that surrounds it. That silence—the refusal to name or confront state violence—is what enables fascism to thrive.

“Friends have had black eyes, bruising, bleeding, broken bones.”

Why is the Ireland-Palestine bond is so strong?

I think there’s many reasons as to why Irish people feel connected to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. The historic parallels of occupation, colonialism, and a shared experience of British Imperialism have led to a sense of understanding from the Irish people toward Palestine. Ireland is also in a unique position, having only being semi-liberated from occupation just 100 years ago, the struggle for our land is by no means ancient history.

Berlin is known internationally to be home to progressive spaces for people from all walks of life, what’s your thoughts on this image in light of the repression you’ve witnessed?

What’s especially disheartening about the pipe dream of Berlin as a progressive city—a supposed safe haven for people from all walks of life—is not just that it no longer exists, but that it never truly did. If this city remains so complacent while the Palestinian community is criminalised simply for existing, then how can we ever claim that Berlin was the leftist utopia it so often imagined itself to be?