Germany | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 24
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Germany Tag

The migrant crisis that began almost a year ago is threatening to take a violent turn after this week’s bombings in the eastern German city on Dresden. On Monday evening, two bombs exploded near a mosque and city's main convention centre. Early next week, the convention centre would be hosting an event expected to be attended by high-profile guests including Germany's President Joachim Gauck. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also going to visit the former East German city of Dresden on the same day to mark the German Unification Day. According to German media, no one was injured in the explosions. Local police suspects a Far-Right group to be behind the incident. "[Dresden Police] have reason to suspect a xenophobic motive," City's police chief Horst Kretzschmar told the press.

Just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel's party suffered a humiliating defeat in the Berlin state election, violent clashes between migrants and locals erupted in several German cities. On Sunday, Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) got a drubbing in Germany's capital, with CDU's historic poor showing at the state elections. Right-wing party opposed to Mass-Migration, Alternative for Germany (AfD) outperformed the election forecasts securing 14 percent. AfD, only founded in 2013, is now in 10 state parliaments thanks to Chancellor Merkel's disastrous handling of migrant crisis. The first clashes erupted in the eastern German city of Bautzen, where apparently drunk migrants threw bottles at police and other locals. Authorities were forced to restrict the movement of the refugees and impose a ban on alcohol. The restriction aimed at young migrants caused an uproar among liberal politicians and media commentators who accused the local police and the mayor -- a leftist himself -- of 'acting in a racist way' against 'traumatised young migrants.' Leading German weekly Der Spiegel reported the temporary imposition of restriction on refugees in the city with the headline titled "Victory for the racists."

Ahead of this week’s EU summit in Slovenia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, already suffering from low popularity at home, looks more isolated then ever at the European stage. Having backed Chancellor Merkel at the beginning of the Migrant Crisis last year, Government of Austria has long distanced itself from Berlin’s liberal stance on migrant influx into Europe. However, what worries Berlin today is the emerging alliance between Austria and the Central European countries of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic -- also referred to as the Visegrad group. Prominent German newspaper Die Welt viewed the new development with concern. “Should the five [countries] were to act in concert, this would create a new political power centre in Europe,” Die Welt noted. This new rival block could pose a serious challenge to German-French dominated “European Project”. Most Visegrad member states have been against Merkel’s liberal Migrant Policy right from its onset. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains the most vocal opponent of Merkel’s Brussels-backed pro-migrant stance. “Europe's biggest problem at the moment is naivety.” Prime Minster Orban said while talking to reporters earlier this week. “[EU’s] migration policy is based on naivety and that's why we are in huge trouble today.”

France, home to one of the Europe’s largest Muslim population, is facing an uphill battle against Islamic terrorism. According to France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls, security forces have been foiling terror plots “every day” and warned of more terrorist attacks in the near future. French officials estimates that around 15,000 radical Islamists reside in the country -- and going by the current EU-wide trends -- these numbers were only expected to go up. “We have nearly 700 French jihadists and residents, who are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria,” Valls told French media, adding that this number included “275 women and dozens of children.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a devastating defeat in her own home turf as voters in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern rejected her open-door immigration policy. The otherwise tame German press was scrambling to find the right words to describe Merkel’s latest defeat, with the leading German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung calling it to the “chainsaw massacre." Anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany  (AfD) finished in second place with 21 percent votes in the state assembly, ahead of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU). The leader of AfD, Frauke Petry, declared her party’s latest election victory as the “beginning of the end of Merkel’s era."

In July, Germany passed a new law that "requires" the integration of the over one million refugees who've flooded into Germany in recent years.  The plan includes subsidized classes in how to act like a civilized human being, a requirement to learn German, and temporary lifting of the requirement that immigrants can only be offered jobs if there is no German or EU worker for the position. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Angela Merkel is still clinging to her integration pipe dream.  In an interview with Germany's BILD newspaper, Merkel explains that integration can include things like providing a simple explanation of how things are done in Germany. Business Insider reports:
BILD: What we did indeed manage is primary help for over one million people. The bigger challenge is yet to come: how do we integrate that many people from an entirely different culture, after having failed, to a large degree, in many aspects of this task over the past decades? Merkel: Fortunately, we have learned a lot from the past, primarily that language is the key to successful integration. The younger people are, the easier it is for integration to succeed. It is worth facing this effort. I would like to use the opportunity to thank everybody who is working towards the success of this integration. This is not only the state authorities, but primarily the countless associations, initiatives, and voluntary helpers.

If opinion polls are any indication, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is heading for a humiliating electoral defeat in own home state. On Sunday, the voters in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which includes Chancellor Merkel’s home constituency of Rügen, will be electing a new state assembly. The result of the state election could seal the political fate of Chancellor Merkel who has not given up her hopes of running for a 4th term. Having been at the helm of affairs in Germany for over 12 years, Merkel has not ruled out running for yet another term, but has been ducking questions about her political future in recent weeks. A devastating defeat, like the one being predicted by the pollsters, could finally put an end to her ambitions.

A few days ago, we covered how in early August 2016 the Student Council at Leipzig University in Germany passed a resolution taking a strong stand against calls to boycott Israel, declaring them to be anti-Semitic, READ: German university student council resolution declaring BDS anti-Semitic:
The Student Council condemns anti-Semitic boycott campaigns such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] and stands against the execution, participation in, and promotion of such campaigns and events at the University of Leipzig. Therefore, the Student Council will not support BDS Campaign or settings (events, exhibitions, demonstrations etc.) in which BDS Movement is involved. We consider international cooperation vital for the Academics. As a Student Council we stand against anti-Semitic measures such as disinviting of Israeli academicians from conferences in the context of the boycott campaign, and [council will] publicise whenever it happens — thereby contributing to the clarification of the matter and preventing such an occurrence.
The student council has produced a chronicle of its rejection of BDS (pdf.) which includes a citation to my translation of the resolution:

As Germany's Angela Merkel faces increasing pressure regarding her nation's security, the German government has issued a civil defense report addressing the role the German people are to play. Reuters reports:
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday. Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month. Berlin announced measures earlier this month to spend considerably more on its police and security forces and to create a special unit to counter cyber crime and terrorism.

Students at Germany’s leading academic institution, the University of Leipzig, have passed a resolution rejecting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and calling it anti-Semitic. According to a copy of the resolution obtained by the Legal Insurrection from the Facebook pages of student groups, Leipzig University’s Student Council declared the BDS movement as being blatantly anti-Semitic, saying “even the basic aim of the BDS movement, the complete boycott of the State of Israel, fits seamlessly with the anti-Semitic campaigns of past centuries, and explicitly with that of the National Socialism; Nazi slogan “Don’t Buy From the Jews” is once again being expressed here.” [lines 109-112] The resolution passed by the Leipzig University’s Student Council earlier this month declares [author's translation]:

A newly leaked German intelligence report dubbed Turkey as a major hub for Jihadi groups operating worldwide. The confidential document belonging to German Interior Ministry published by several German newspapers says that Erdogan-ruled Turkey has "developed into a central platform of activity for Islamist groups in the Middle East." The latest revelations should not come as a surprise to anyone, however the publication of confidential document puts more pressure on German government to take a tougher stand against Erdogan's Islamist Regime. The internal assessment drawn by Germany's intelligence service, BND, sees “ideological affinity” between Erdogan Regime and Islamist terror groups. The report specifically focuses on Turkey's ties to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Gaza-based Hamas. Erdogan Regime has been one of the strongest backer of Hamas -- ever since the terrorist group took hold of Gaza in 2006.

As a casual observer of German and European media, regular display of anti-Israel bias doesn’t surprise me anymore. But the report aired Sunday by Germany’s state-run broadcaster Tagesschau (ARD) during prime time was disturbingly biased -- even by usual European standards. A video report titled “Dry Faucets in West Bank” was broadcasted on Germany’s most watched news show. The video clip accused Israel of ‘rationing the water supply’ of the Palestinian and diverting water resources to the neighbouring ‘Israeli settlements’. The report narrated by ARD’s Israel correspondent Markus Rosch talks to a resident of a small Arab town of Salfit, who says, “We need water to live. Now there isn’t any. How can this go on like this?” The camera then switches to his little daughter who says she can’t go the holiday camps anymore due to water scarcity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of ‘Refugee Welcome' is a gift that keeps on giving. On Wednesday morning, German police carried out series of raids in several cities in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. The raids were concentrated around the network of three prominent Muslim preachers suspected of working as recruiters and backers for the Islamic State (ISIS). The large-scale police operation comes just a day after German police in North Rhine-Westphalia arrested a man suspected of being a high-ranking member of the Islamic State.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has proposed a ban on burqas due to the numerous terrorist attacks along with pushing officials "to speed up deportations of rejected asylum applicants and loosen privacy protections." The proposal also states that doctors "would have to inform the authorities if they become suspicious that a patient was planning to harm other people."

German authorities have detained an alleged high-ranking member of the Islamic State in Mutterstadt in Rhineland Palatinate state, located near the French border. https://twitter.com/SarahHarman53/status/763035694025609216

As a recent immigrant to Germany, it was all the more painful for me to watch 30,000 demonstrators in the city of Cologne -- majority of them second or third generation migrants of Turkish-origin -- marching in support of Erdogan’s takeover of Turkey. Thousands chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they welcomed dignitaries belonging to Erdogan’s Islamist party AKP. For millions like them, more than 50 years of state-sponsored project of Multiculturalism has neither created a bond loyalty to their adopted home nor a sense of value for the liberties and freedoms that one so naturally enjoys in the West.

A great many Germans seem angry with Angela Merkel and would like her out of office:
Merkel's premiership is hanging by a thread today as thousands gathered to call for her resignation while a key political ally dramatically withdrew his support over immigration policy. More than 5,000 protested in Berlin and thousands more throughout Germany over the 'open-door' policy that many have blamed for four brutal terrorist attacks that left 13 dead over the last month. The Chancellor faced a fresh wave of fury after it emerged that two recent terror attacks and a third killing were carried out by men who entered the country as refugees.

Due to recent terrorist attacks, German politicians have now asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to deport over 200,000 migrants who failed to gain asylum. Homeland expert Armin Schuster said:
In his appeal for a speeding up of deportations, Mr Schuster said: “Some could get the impression they could get away with anything because they don’t realise how mildly the state reacts to those breaking the law.”