Amnesty files complaint against German police union VP over Palestine comments

Manuel Ostermann’s racism and calls for violence against anti-genocide protesters lead to formal complaint from human rights group

Amnesty International’s German office has filed a formal complaint against police union vice president Manuel Ostermann over his racism and incitement to violence against anti-genocide protesters.

In a video, Ostermann has “called for the deportation of demonstrators [standing] in solidarity with Palestine” and “advocated violence by [police] dogs without a muzzle against protesters”. The human rights group said Ostermann’s inhumaneand Islamophobic statements would incite discrimination, racism and police violence and were ‘inflammatory and incompatible with his office’. German police have been condemned for blatant and unrestrained violence against peaceful protesters.

Amnesty said its aim is to force an investigation of the statements that would lead to disciplinary measures.

In his almost daily posts on social media Ostermann, 34, has described the peaceful anti-genocide protests in Germany as ‘violent’ and claimed they present an ‘acute and omnipresent’ terrorist threat, adding that:

The danger comes from Islamists and politics is still in a deep sleep. Unbelievable.

The German government has sided entirely with Israel in its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, demanding promises of support for Israel from citizenship applicants, withholding federal funding from organisations that criticise Israel and stating that it will not comply with the International Criminal Court (ICC) war crimes arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant despite Germany’s obligations as a signatory to the ICC, because of Germany’s nazi history. German police have been accused of sharing the names and addresses of pro-Palestine activists with pro-Israel media and pressure groups.

The German Federal Ministry of the Interior said it did not want to comment on the Ostermann complaint. Ostermann has also declined to comment publicly.

Apartheid Israel has so far murdered around 200,000 civilians in Gaza, wounded many more and is starving hundreds of thousands. Most of its victims have been women and children. It is also attacking Lebanon and Syria and driving out thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from their homes.

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