On Saturday, Germany imposed a political ban on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, prohibiting him from visiting the country as well as running for office via Zoom.
Yanis Varoufakis was part of a three-day conference in Berlin on Friday to discuss issues related to Palestine and the Middle East, but authorities interrupted him before he was scheduled to speak.
Snippets of videos he showed condemned the actions of both Israeli forces and Palestinian groups and called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. He said:
Today, Germany’s interior ministry issued a “betätigungsverbot” against me, a ban on any political activity – not just a ban from visiting Germany but also from participation in Zoom events hosted in the country.
He said the need for dialogue and understanding between Jews and Palestinians was paramount, and called for solidarity in the face of violence and oppression. Varoufakis pointed out:
Sadly, the whole of the German political system has decided not to allow this. In a joint statement including not just the CDU-CSU and the FDP but also the SPD, the Greens, and, remarkably, two leaders of Die Linke, Germany’s political spectrum joined forces to ensure that such a civilized debate, in which we may disagree agreeably, never takes place in Germany.
Organisers said German police cut the power and cancelled the last two days of the conference, which was to critically examine German military support for Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
I say to them: You want to silence us. To ban us. To demonise us. To accuse us. You, therefore, leave us with no choice but to meet your ridiculous accusations with our own rational accusations. You chose this. Not us. You accuse us of antisemitic hatred. We accuse you of being the antisemite’s best friend by equating the right of Israel to commit war crimes with the right of Israeli Jews to defend themselves.
In Germany, Berlin’s support for Israel has sparked growing opposition as a total of more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, when war broke out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
