Since taking power on January 20, the Trump administration has engaged in an all-out assault on First Amendment rights and due process. It is attacking judges in the U.S. that have issued rulings that cite serious constitutional concerns. It has embarked on a sweeping campaign to force colleges and universities to hand over private records of students that have engaged in protests against the U.S.-facilitated Israeli war against the Palestinians of Gaza. It announced a sweeping program to deport students because of their activism, including those with Legal Permanent Residency status, or Green Cards—as in the case of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.

The position of this administration is that the First Amendment does not really apply to criticism of Israel or of zionism. Trump’s administration is trying to circumvent the Constitution and to criminalize clearly protected speech in the service of a genocidal government whose weapons and political support overwhelmingly come from the U.S.

The tactics the Trump administration is employing are firmly in line with a longstanding German policy of putting support for Israel, no matter how heinous its crimes, above the basic free speech rights of its citizens. At the heart of Germany’s policies is a doctrine referred to as Staatsräson, or Reason of State. In Germany it is official policy that the defense of the Israeli state is a non-negotiable principle of the nation.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Alexander Gorski, a Berlin-based criminal defense and migration lawyer, speaks with Jeremy Scahill about out how Germany has weaponized the concept of antisemitism to stifle dissent and to suppress speech. Gorski, who is representing defendants in high-profile deportation cases in Germany, is a partner with the European Legal Support Center.

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