E96: BANNED from Germany for speaking out for Palestine – with Yanis Varoufakis

The long repression of pro-Palestinian voices in Germany reached a peak last Friday.

German police shut down the Palestine Congress, a vital event to unite activists around a ceasefire for Gaza. They detained participants, including Jewish activists; they deported a Palestinian speaker. And then they banned our own Yanis Varoufakis, not only from making political speeches in Germany, but also from doing so over Zoom (!).

These authoritarian moves make it clear: Germany is intent on silencing anyone who speaks out against its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

So for our livestream this week, Yanis Varoufakis and colleagues who attended the Palestine Congress will be dissecting this brazen act of state repression against Palestinian solidarity. What lessons can we draw? How has the reaction been? And what could all this mean for the future of free speech and pro-Palestine activism in Germany, and around the world?

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