Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, pro-Palestinian demonstrations in German cities and universities have become flashpoints between protesters and police.
Modern, multicultural Germany includes large Muslim and Arabic communities but the country's World War II history and sense of responsibility to atone for its Nazi past and crimes against the Jewish people, has meant that Germany's support for Israel has been sacrosanct for successive governments.
This history goes some way to explaining why German authorities take a robust approach to preventing antisemitic gestures or calls for Israel's destruction at protests – whether verbal or written on placards.
However, many protesters have complained that they are penalised by police for displaying solidarity with the Palestinian people and voicing their opposition to Israel's war in Gaza.
Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper, reported in February that more than 9,000 criminal charges had been registered at pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin alone since the start of the conflict in October 2023.
Two other protesters, Polish citizen Kasia Wlaszczyk and US citizen Cooper Longbottom, were also given a deportation orders.
Shane O'Brien was arrested at a protest at a Berlin university last October, while Roberta Murray had been accused of using banned slogans in support of Palestinians in Gaza at protests.
Alexander Gorski, a Berlin-based lawyer for the four protesters, told RTÉ News earlier this month that Berlin's migration office argued that by participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the four were spreading antisemitism and that they were indirectly supporting Hamas.
Mr Gorski said the charges were "very vague" and had "no legal founding".
The highly unusual move of a German regional state issuing deportation orders to citizens from EU countries was viewed by many legal experts as infringing on the individuals' freedom of movement – a fundamental right of EU citizens.
"When you have the right of free movement, you can't just be deported for a small offence," Thomas Oberhäuser, Chair of the German Bar Association's Committee on Migration Law, told RTÉ News.
German law, he said, allows freedom of movement "exactly like EU law" and individuals can only be deported when someone is considered a "serious threat" to the state.
Neither of the four protesters have been convicted of any criminal offences in Germany.
On 10 April, Mr O'Brien received an injunction in his case.
However, deportation orders remain in place for Roberta Murray, Kasia Wlaszczyk and Cooper Longbottom. Their deadline to voluntarily leave Germany expires today, 21 April.
Speaking to RTÉ News earlier this month, Roberta, a 31-year-old from Sligo, said that the group intended to "fight this deportation order to the absolute end" and that they did not plan to leave Germany.
The case was also discussed in the Dáil earlier this month with Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying the matter was "a fundamental concern in terms of their freedom of movement".
He said the Government planned to raise the case with German authorities.
The language in which pro-Palestinian protests are conducted is a key focus for German police.
Last Wednesday, an Irish citizen was briefly detained outside the Irish Embassy in Berlin for violating the capital's Freedom of Assembly Act during a pro-Palestinian protest.
"I was just chanting 'Lámha as an Phalaistín' and 'Saoirse don Phalaistín,'" Kitty, a 25-year-old from Dublin, told RTÉ News.
This chanting in Irish, and not German or English, was enough for police to intervene.
In a statement issued to RTÉ News, Berlin police outlined that they had determined that "speeches or audio recordings must be held in German or English as the Berlin police had no interpreters available for Gaelic".
"In order to prevent criminal offences, it must be ensured that speeches or audio recordings can be understood by the police at all times," read the police statement.
Later that same day, Berlin police arrested five students who occupied the city's Humboldt University.
Video filmed at the sit-in showed protesters had unfurled large banners in English and German which read: "There is only one state, Palestine 48" and "Intifada until victory".
In particular, police deployed at pro-Palestinian protests have been on the lookout for the use of the phrase, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," in verbal or written form.
Germany’s interior ministry banned the slogan’s use "in German and other languages" in November 2023 along with a number of symbols that depict support for Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organisation in Germany.
The phrase itself refers to the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, and many Jewish groups view its use as a call for the destruction of the Israeli state.
Last August, a Berlin court fined a German-Iranian dual citizen for using the phrase during a protest in Berlin just days after the 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel.
The judge in the case ruled that its use had been akin to calling for Israel's destruction.
However, Germany’s regional states have a lot of leeway when it comes to interpreting the federal announcement from November 2023.
Last June, a court in Bavaria found that banning the phrase ahead of a pro-Palestinian march in Munich would be "disproportionate" and ruled that its use could only be considered a punishable offence if a reference to Hamas is made.
While last September, a court in Düsseldorf upheld a ban on the use of the slogan at rallies in the city and in nearby Duisburg after pro-Palestinian protesters had launched legal proceedings against the ban.
"There's been a lot of cases involving people shouting 'from the river to the sea'," said Mr Oberhäuser.
German prosecutors, he said, have to consider whether the use of the slogan is criminal.
"This is dangerous because it involves freedom of speech and not everyone who shouts this slogan is supporting Hamas".
Zero tolerance by German authorities towards any statements that could be construed as anti-Israeli or antisemitic reflect the country’s long-standing support for Israel since its foundation in 1948.
That support is a core element of German foreign policy, driven by the efforts of successive German governments’ to atone for the country’s Nazi past and the crimes of the Holocaust.
Germany’s support for Israel is also integral to what German policy makers call the federal state’s 'staatsräson’, literally the "reason of state", or its raison d'être.
Former German chancellor Angela Merkel encapsulated this policy when she told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in 2008 that Germany’s historical responsibility to Israel was part of her country’s 'staatsräson’.
"For me, as German Federal Chancellor Israel’s security is never negotiable. And if this is the case, then these cannot be empty words in the moment of truth," she said.
On 8 October 2023, one day after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel during which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also invoked 'staatsräson’.
"Israel's security is Germany's raison d'être," reads the English-language translation of Mr Scholz’s statement from that day.
Days later, he said that "Germany’s history and the responsibility arising from the Holocaust made it Germany’s perpetual duty to stand up for the existence and security of Israel".
His foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, who visited Israel days after the Hamas attacks, declared "we are all Israelis".
Germany remains the second largest supplier of military equipment to Israel after the United States, leaving the country’s government open to criticism for its dual policy on Gaza: sending military supplies to Israel while also calling for, and sending, humanitarian aid to Gaza.
To date, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel during the war in Gaza, according to the region's health ministry.
Writing in 'Foreign Policy' last February, Dr Ilyas Saliba, a political scientist at Berlin’s Global Public Policy Institute, argued that Germany’s "pro-Israel policy is rooted in a commendable desire to atone for historical atrocities. But it also threatens to make Germany complicit in new ones".
Accusations of Germany's alleged complicity in Israel's war in Gaza were raised by Nicaragua in March 2024.
The Central American country brought a case against Germany at the International Court of Justice, alleging that the German government was facilitating genocide in Gaza by providing military aid to Israel.
Germany's team of lawyers rejected the allegations on the grounds that most of its military supplies to Israel since the start of the war had been non-lethal.
The ICJ voted not to issue a verdict against Germany, though the court also decided to keep the case on its books.
Incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz has voiced his ardent support for Israel and has previously suggested that new German citizens should recognise the state of Israel as part of the naturalisation process.
Under his chancellorship, it is likely that Germany's state authorities will continue to robustly pursue any perceived anti-Israeli or antisemitic gestures at pro-Palestinian rallies.
Germany is not unique in this regard.
Last month, the Trump administration revoked more than 300 visas for international students.
Many of the cases involved people who had participated in pro-Palestinian protests that swept across US university campuses last year.
The deportation orders in Berlin against the two Irish citizens and the Polish citizen, look like an attempt by Berlin authorities to send a strong signal to the capital's pro-Palestinian protest movement.
But state prosecutors are unlikely to be able to bypass EU law on freedom of movement.
All three EU citizens have "a strong chance" of winning their cases, said Mr Oberhäuser.
"It's not clear what really happened, what the three did or whether they were a serious threat to society."
