Germany's new citizenship law: A crackdown on pro-Palestine support?

For migrants and refugees, the change was long-awaited. After years of promises, major amendments to Germany's citizenship law came into force earlier this summer, announced by the interior ministry as “faster naturalisation under stricter conditions”.

In the revamp, migrants and refugees could now become dual nationals, no longer needing to give up official ties to their home country. They could also apply for citizenship after a shorter period of living in Germany, from eight years down to five or even three years.

Among some of Germany’s biggest non-European migrant groups who stand to benefit from the change are those from Syria and Turkey.

But since the onset of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza in October, which has killed 40,000 Palestinians, some right-wing politicians disgruntled by the legal changes have claimed that these potential new citizens have contributed to a rise in anti-Semitism in the country. They point to statistics that show crimes against Jewish people have shot up.

"There is imported anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel in Germany," Christian Social Union lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt was reported as saying in October when asked about asylum status, citizenship laws, and anti-Semitism. "We need a tough course against Jew and Israel haters, with consistency and severity."

While the need for an explicit, individual acknowledgement of Israel’s right to exist did not make it into federal law, prospective citizens will need to “declare their commitment to Germany’s specialist historical responsibility for the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) regime and its consequences, in particular for the protection of Jewish life; to peaceful co-existence among peoples; and to the prohibition on conducting a war of aggression”.

Several multiple-choice questions were added to the citizenship test that addressed Jewish heritage and history in Germany, as well as the creation and existence of the state of Israel.

Among the questions on Israel are: ‘What behaviour with regard to the state of Israel is banned in Germany’ (Answer: ‘Publicly calling for Israel’s extermination’); and ‘Where does Germany’s special responsibility for Israel come from?’ (Answer: ‘Crimes committed by the Nazis, who murdered six million Jews during the Holocaust’).

Fabian Graske, a lawyer in Germany with expertise in citizenship and naturalisation, told The New Arab that the addition of these test questions was done with the aim of tempering any potential rise in anti-Semitic feelings and action in Germany as populations that have historically stood in solidarity with Palestinians are brought into the nation’s fold.

“In my opinion, the expansion of the naturalisation test is because the conflict between Israel and Palestine has increased since 2023. In addition, up to two million people of Muslim faith have immigrated to Germany since 2015 - one million from 2015 to 2020 alone,” Graske said.

“The legislator’s aim in amending the law is to ensure that the long-term protection of the Jewish population can be preserved due to the increasing population, which is more politically in favour of Palestine.”

With Germany cracking down hard in recent years on pro-Palestine expression in the country - a process that has only accelerated since October - it is unsurprising that when the changes were announced, English-language media widely reported that prospective citizens would have to explicitly recognise Israel’s right to exist - but this is not the case, legal experts say.

“The new German citizenship law does not require naturalisations to recognise Israel’s right to exist,” Tarik Tabbara, a professor of public law at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, told The New Arab.

“The law now requires that in order to become naturalised, one has to subscribe to the historic responsibility of Germany for the Nazi regime and the consequences that follow thereof, especially the protection for Jewish life,” Tabbara said, referring to the Nationality Act.

It is only in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is still dominant and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is popular, that lawmakers went one step further, requiring from November of last year that people in the state applying for German citizenship explicitly confirm in writing that Israel has a right to exist.

Tabbara said that it remains unclear whether or not the changes in Saxony-Anhalt conform with federal laws of old or new.

Pro-Palestine and precarious

But while there is no explicit mention of Israel in the new pledge, its phrasing does leave ambiguity in how vocal support for Palestine and Palestinian resistance might impact a person’s attempt to acquire citizenship.

In one of the most recent examples of Germany’s clampdown on pro-Palestine expression, a German-Iranian national was convicted in a Berlin court last week of condoning a criminal act for calling out “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a protest in Berlin.

Because the protest happened only a few days after Hamas’ large-scale attack on Israelis, its use “could only be understood as a denial of Israel’s right to exist” and as an endorsement of the Palestinian militant group’s action, a court spokesperson said of the verdict.

Use of “From the river to the sea” - a chant used for decades as a call to liberate Palestinian land from Israeli occupation - was banned by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in November, though different courts and judges in Germany have made varying rulings on its use and meaning.

The noose continues to tighten on pro-Palestine expression, and the consequences for flouting these rules are of especially high stakes for non-citizens. In June, the interior ministry said that the law of residence would be changed so that a foreigner who approves or promotes “terrorist crime” - even through a like or comment on social media - could be deported.

Zaid Abdulnasser, a Syrian-Palestinian refugee who has lived in Germany for almost a decade, said he was stripped of his refugee status last year by the interior ministry for his work with Samidoun, a Palestinian activist network later banned by the ministry for what it described as “glorifying various terrorist organisations”.

“On the issue of Palestine, a German citizen will of course face repression, but to a different level than you are subjected to as a refugee in this country,” Abdulnasser said of the difference between speaking up for Palestine as a citizen and non-citizen.

“Germany is using refugee and residency law to suppress the pro-Palestine movement, which has so many refugees who came to the country in the past decade at its core,” Abdulnasser said.

“It is attacking them while they hold this weak legal status that they have to make sure that they are unable to engage in political discourse in this country without serious repercussions.”

Non-European migrants and refugees are already subject to intense state scrutiny while seeking citizenship, facing multiple checks by various state bodies “to prevent criminals and people who are hostile to the constitution from being naturalised in Germany”, according to Graske.

These include checks on “whether they may be anti-Semitic”, he said. Offences that could be grounds to block the attainment of citizenship include dissemination of propaganda material of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations, the use of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations, and incitement to hatred.

For Palestinian potential citizens, such scrutiny is not new. Recalling his own experiences of trying to obtain citizenship well before the recent changes were made, Abdulnasser said he was sent a state security report, featuring publicly available photos and videos, that tracked his participation in and attendance at events run by organisations that support Palestine.

At the end of the report were questions he was told he needed to answer, including whether Israel has the right to exist, his opinions on the slogan “From the river to the sea”, and his views on armed resistance.

“These measures were already affecting Palestinians,” he said. “So many Palestinians were being asked these questions before this became part of the law and a standard process. It has just been institutionalised.”

Scapegoats for anti-Semitism?

With potential citizens already subject to so much surveillance, there are doubts as to how effective test questions - literally a tick-box exercise - will be in weeding out candidates who harbour sentiments on Israel that the German state considers undesirable or dangerous.

Lawyers and legal experts have pointed out that the test questions are about knowledge of Germany’s position on the creation and existence of the Israeli state, not a potential citizen’s personal opinions - so there is nothing to stop a candidate who has studied enough from simply selecting the right answers, even if they are incompatible with their personal stances.

Some say the test questions are not only ineffective but also contribute to a harmful framing of who is to blame for the near-perpetual problem of anti-Semitism in Germany, long associated with the far right.

Both the test questions and pledge make explicit that the German state bears a responsibility to answer for crimes of anti-Semitism and protect its Jewish population, but the fact that these changes happened in concurrence with the easing of the attainment of citizenship for migrants and refugees could be seen as placing blame for the issue on citizens-to-be – many of whom happen to be Muslims and of Middle Eastern descent.

“Anti-Semitism is a problem for society as a whole, and it is not just a migrant problem,” Germany-based Palestinian journalist Ahmad Shihabi told The New Arab. “Emphasising Israel’s right to exist as part of the citizenship process will not change this reality,” he added.

“This plan fuels discriminatory debates and raises a general suspicion of a population group, such as refugees, Palestinians, and Muslims, by portraying them as suspected anti-Semites.”

Shahla Omar is a freelance journalist based in London. She was previously a staff journalist and news editor at The New Arab.

Follow her on X: @shahlasomar