‘Reasons of public welfare’ stated by German regime, which has been brutally repressing anti-genocide protest, for evasiveness about its activities but response gives game away regardless
The German government has obliquely admitted that its secret services are monitoring pro-Palestine media – but that it doesn’t want to say so openly because that might let the targeted media platforms avoid surveillance.
Dr Otillie Klein, a German MP, submitted a parliamentary question to Germany’s secret services asking whether Red.Media is being monitored because of its popularity ‘among anti-Israel groups’. The question did not appear to be a friendly one for the media: Klein guested earlier this year at the right-wing Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s ‘Cafe Kyiv’, which argues that Ukraine must be part of Europe, where she argued, apparently without irony, that ‘disinformation’ is damaging democracy – a similar tack used by the UK government in planning for suppressing all kinds of information that is inconvenient to the Establishment narrative. And she also wanted to know whether the secret services consider the channel a ‘successor to Russian disinformation network’:
The government responded that it is not prepared to divulge the information because saying it is monitoring the media would give media platforms intel they could use to avoid being monitored – but the answer still amounts to ‘yes’:
In a statement, the platform said:
It appears that the German intelligence service is monitoring us. Why? Because some “journalists” and politicians have a problem with our popularity among pro-Palestinian protesters. According to these “journalists,” we’re even “instigating” the pro-Palestinian demonstrations here.
Since the onset of the war in Ukraine and especially since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, activists, journalists, media outlets, and academics have become targets of the German media. They are being cancelled, publicly subjected to witch hunts, and even their names and pictures are being published in newspapers.
The state, with the help of the media, will harass you, publicly hound you, and possibly even investigate you. Nevertheless, the long arm of the censors will not stop our coverage.
The German authorities have treated anti-genocide protests and resistance as criminal and violent, frequently beating and arresting peaceful demonstrators, seemingly undeterred by the presence of cameras and the ensuing footage.
These tactics have been mirrored by the UK government and its enforcement and the situation only appears to be getting worse in this country under the authoritarian Keir Starmer‘s new regime. The UK Establishment appears to be preparing for the repression of the public’s scrutiny and challenge of MPs, especially over Gaza, by characterising them as violence or intimidation.
Since Starmer’s fascist-aided accession, dozens of peaceful UK protesters have been arrested, while the UK courts, according to UN rapporteur for environmental defenders, Michel Forst, have been acting as a “purely punitive and repressive” arm of the state. Forst was in London this week for the trial of environmental protesters – proceedings in which the judge banned the defendants from using the existential threat to our environment as part of their defence and even from informing members of the jury of their statutory right to vote with their conscience. The judge today sentenced the five peaceful protesters to four to five years in prison – one received a five-year sentence simply for participating in a Zoom call discussing the protest plan. These are the harshest sentences ever issued to UK climate protesters, who are trying to prevent environmental catastrophe.
While targeting peaceful protesters in this country, Starmer is planning to use government lawyers to try to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for the deliberate starvation inflicted on two million Palestinians in Gaza and other crimes against humanity.
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