Petition/Call to action #Asylum4GazansNOW!
Palestinians from Gaza in Germany have the right to asylum!
SIGN THE PETITION: https://chng.it/bBCD7LHmCW
Since October 2023, German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees - BAMF has frozen the processing of all asylum applications of Palestinians from Gaza, while they are witnessing their families, homes, and neighbourhoods being annihilated! Doubling down on its historic commitment to extermination campaigns, Germany is not only taking an active part in the ongoing genocide in Gaza by supporting the Israeli war machine militarily, economically and diplomatically, but is also persecuting Gazans on its territory.
With no decision on their asylum applications in sight for almost a year now, Gazans remain trapped in an endless waiting – carrying both the grief of what is happening back at home and the uncertainty of their future, bearing the brunt of German anti-Palestinian hatred and the brutality of the German Lager (camps). The government in Berlin, true to its legacy of savage brutality, is striking a blow at those already in a precarious situation, pushing them into even greater vulnerability.
Palestinians from Gaza have an undeniable right to asylum. Germany must fulfill its legal duty by immediately putting an end to its persecution of Gazans.
Situation of Gazans before October 7th, 2023
Germany’s callous treatment of Palestinian refugees from Gaza, as much as of Palestinian refugees in general, is nothing new. They were never systematically granted asylum despite Israel’s 17-year-long brutal land, sea, and air siege of the Gaza Strip –extreme restrictions on the movement of people, medical equipment and essential goods that turned the area into the “largest open-air prison in the world”, and despite the bombing campaigns in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, 2022, and early 2023.
In the past years, Germany has mostly been denying international protection to Gazans, issuing them instead with a “Duldung” – a temporarily suspension of deportation which does not constitute a residence permit. A person can remain under Duldung for years and even decades on end, having their freedom of movement, as well as access to education, vocational training and even work completely blocked. With this tool of oppression, Germany has been confining Gazans and other asylum-seekers in a state of precariousness and uncertainty – a legal limbo with no end in sight.
It is important to note that a great majority of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were born as refugees, as their parents and grandparents had been expelled from their towns and villages during the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) in 1948 and settled in the Gaza Strip.
Persecution of Gazans is part of the anti-Palestinian campaign in Germany
The German state’s support for the Israeli occupation extends far beyond its current involvement – through weapons delivery, economic assistance, and diplomatic cover – in the ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. On its territory, Germany criminalizes all public expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people, not shying away from fascist methods of life-threatening police brutality, arbitrary judicial measures, smear campaigns against the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities, banning slogans, events and pro-Palestine organizations, and most dangerously the anti-Palestinian measures in asylum, residency, and naturalization legislation. Germany is not merely attempting to silence the pro-Palestinian movement, it is purposefully weaponizing asylum law towards this end, perpetuating the genocidal war on Gaza.
Our demands
We demand that Germany:
immediately processes all the suspended first-time asylum applications of Gazans and grants them a due form of international protection
immediately processes all the follow-up applications of Palestinians from Gaza, who had been denied international protection prior to October 2023, and grants its due form to them
The German government must end its support of the continued oppression and extermination of the Palestinian people. International protection is not just a bureaucratic designation – it is a fundamental right that can provide safety, life in dignity and hope for the future.
Your voice matters. Sign this petition demanding that Germany acts in accordance with its legal obligations and stops blocking Gazans from accessing their undeniable right to asylum!
SIGN THE PETITION: https://chng.it/bBCD7LHmCW