My name is Cinin Abuzeed. I am 19 years old, born and raised in Berlin. I completed 12 years of school and passed my Abitur in 2022. Since October, I have been studying law at the University of Leipzig. In my youth, I have been involved in political work, including working in committees such as the District Migration Council, participating in initiatives and foundations, and in 2021, as the youngest member of the "Gesetz der offenen Tür" campaign, in the revision of the Participation and Migration Law – a project of the Senate. www.berlin.de/lb/intmig/themen/partizipation-in-der-migrationsgesellschaft/kampagne/

On the 17th of April this year, I booked a flight to Tel Aviv to visit my family. Since I had entered without any issues in September of last year, I thought it was unlikely that I would experience what happened in the 38 hours from April 17th to the 18th.

I arrived at the Berlin airport four hours before my scheduled 8:00 a.m. flight with precaution. I was aware that the questioning before entering Israel, especially with my background, could take longer. I went through the two security checks, was questioned by the police about my intentions, and they then thoroughly searched my suitcases and bags. I arrived at my gate shortly before 7:00 a.m. When I arrived at my gate, an employee came up to me and asked for my ticket. Although I paid extra to keep my luggage on the plane, I was the only one forced to check my luggage and pay an additional 80 euros. I asked the employee to make sure that my luggage really gets on the plane since most of my valuables were in the suitcase. When I asked if I could take important items out of my suitcase, she replied that there was no time for that. She gave me the tag number of my suitcase and sent me on the plane.

When I arrived in Tel Aviv, I scanned my passport and received the blue visa paper as confirmation of my existing German citizenship. So, I went to the last passport control before baggage claim to confirm my entry. The gentleman behind the counter looked at my passport, didn't even scan it, and sent me to a fenced area when he realized my last name, where I met other particularly Muslim and Arab origin individuals. They told me that they had been waiting for hours to pick up their luggage. I googled what could be the reason for this segregation between us and the other German passengers. On the website of the Foreign Office, the following information was available: "German citizens with even suspected Arabic or Iranian descent or Islamic religious affiliation must expect intensive security questioning and possible refusal of entry. In the event of refusal of entry, detention in a deportation center until the time of the return flight is common." (Israel: Travel and Security Information (Partial Travel Warning Palestinian Territories - Gaza Strip) - Visa: Israel - Auswärtiges Amt

A lady came up to me with a form and handed me a pen.

First name

Name

Origin

Father's name

Grandfather's name

I knew what she was getting at.

Cinin

Abuzeed

German

I was made to wait for nearly three hours until the lady called me up for the first time. They escorted me to a room. They asked me about my family members, where they lived, their addresses, their phone numbers, and their Palestinian ID numbers. The woman read out the names of all my family members, which I had to confirm. Then they asked me to return to the waiting area. Another hour passed, and I was called again, this time by a man. I entered the room, this time with my phone. He ordered me to provide my fingerprints and then handed me a "deportation form" that I was supposed to sign. The reason for my deportation was listed as "prevention of illegal immigration considerations". When I questioned him as to why I should sign the document if I am a German citizen, he replied that I was not German and that I was nothing more than a "dirty Palestinian." He continued to demand that I sign the document and accompany him to the deportation center. I asked him to wait while I called my mother. While I was on the phone with her, he got up, grabbed me by the shoulder, and threatened me with tear gas and handcuffs. My mother heard these words before I hung up and started recording the conversation.

I explained to him repeatedly that I am German and that I would not go with him easily. I told him that I had the right to call the embassy or the foreign office. He kept insisting that I was nothing more than a refugee and that he could do whatever he wanted with me in "his" country. He pulled me out of the office and back into the passport control area, where several security personnel approached me. They repeatedly tried to force me to hand over my belongings and go into the fenced area until they could take me to the deportation center. I refused. I was alone and didn't know how else to protect myself except by asserting my right to stay in a safe place. My priority was to keep my phone. They threatened me again with the police and told me that they could handle everything with absolute force. Eventually, I allowed them to escort me to the fenced area. I asked them to let me use the restroom, and an hour later, a woman escorted me to the toilet and forbade me from locking the door while I sat there, feeling vulnerable and dehumanized. She then pushed me back into the fenced area. Security personnel repeatedly insulted me as a "sharmuta" (an Arabic word for "slut"), told me to go back to where I came from, that I had no right to see my family, and that I was nothing more than an "illegal refugee." I repeatedly asked them for my suitcase and my passport, but they denied me that "privilege." After several more hours, the "immigration officer," as he called himself, arrived. He came towards me and ordered me to hand over my phone and come with him. I became louder and refused to move. He approached me and grabbed my arms. My first reflex was self-defense. So I grabbed a chair and hurled it between him and me to create a barricade. I told him not to touch me. He kept screaming in my face, telling me to come with him to his center. I asked him for his ID and the address of the center, to which he replied that I had no right to this information. He grabbed me again and said that I could shower there and sleep with others in one room.

With all due respect, I am a 19-year-old girl. I will not go to an unknown location without my phone, to shower and sleep with strangers under the surveillance of foreign officers. Not without my passport, not without my belongings, and certainly not without a way to contact people outside.

It took all my strength to resist the security guards and their plans. I became louder and more defensive. I asked friends and family to contact the embassy or the foreign office. The authorities promised to contact me, but they told my parents there was no possibility of intervention.

After hours, it was agreed that I would spend the night under guard at the airport, with other deported people, mostly Ukrainians. As the only "non-white" person, I was forced through a security check. The security men stood with the Ukrainians in front of me, and the woman repeatedly removed parts of my clothing, touched me in uncomfortable places on my body, and made unpleasant remarks to her colleagues. Again, the security men made gestures, laughed, and used expressions like "Sharmuta". I felt dehumanized and exposed in front of the other deported people.

Finally, we were taken to a gate. My bags were taken again, and now I had to wait 12 hours until someone picked me up to take me to the plane.

I have no passport.

No luggage.

No documents.

I had just a little money and my phone, which was dying.

Security guards were moving around me all the time. I went to the Christian prayer rooms, they were there, in the bathroom too, and where I ate, they always sat 5 meters away from me.

They treated me like a criminal.

I have never even received a parking ticket. My police clearance certificate is clean, and even if it wasn't, they had no right to treat me this way.

They forced us to sleep on the floor like animals. They gave us expired food for those who had no money to buy something. I built myself a kind of cave with everything I had left. Two Ukrainian men laid down next to me. All the Arab-Germans who initially sat with me on the plane were taken to the deportation center. They did not appear on the flight back to Berlin the next day.

They woke me up the next morning. They threw me into a police car and barricaded the doors. They drove me to the plane. The policeman argued heatedly on the phone. I leaned over the backrest and saw a form, which I took pictures of. The form ordered the pilot to take me into his custody until I landed in Germany and was handed over to the Federal Police. I was to be reported for illegal immigration.

They threw me on the plane and informed me.

32 hours have passed. 32 hours of harassment, insults, dehumanization, and danger.

For 32 hours, no one from the German side contacted me. Nobody answered my emails. Nobody was willing to intervene to serve my protection.

I got my passport back in Germany. I went to the baggage claim, but my luggage is not registered. Not only that, the airline cannot confirm that I was ever on the flight back to Berlin on April 18th. I was a ghost passenger, and my luggage disappeared without a trace. My valuables, my clothes, everything is gone.

My German passport has no value. I am only German as long as it fits into the political context. When it comes to taxes or broadcasting fees, then we are German. When it comes to the state's obligations to us, my citizenship is a topic open to discussion. If not even a document is enough to prove my existence, how does the state protect my rights? The fact that the Foreign Office publicly allows the State of Israel to make our rights dependent on a simple assumption about our origin or religious background, sells our rights for political guilt and makes us Germans a target of abuse, is not only incomprehensible to me, but also outrageous.

I was born here and I have parents who have lived here longer than they have in their birth countries. I have parents who are proud Germans, work here and have given up everything so that we would not be treated the way they experienced it. And yet. The illusion of a free, safe Germany is deceiving.

After 19 years, I have learned that this country does not see me. That no matter how much I could do and how much we could achieve, we will always remain "migrants" and "refugees". Where was the Embassy?

On April 17th, 2023, I learned that my identity is never secure. Neither through a good job, nor through a certain level of prosperity or education. My rights are not guaranteed for.

I want to make it clear that this statement is not politically motivated. It is not my intention to blame Israel, Germany or anyone else. I am not speaking here as a migrant, Palestinian or Muslim. I am speaking as a German citizen and addressing the state and our embassies on behalf of all affected German "migrants". The security of the State of Israel or any other state with which we may or may already cooperate, is and must never be borne at the expense of the existence and security of individual Germans. I am speaking as a human rights activist and appeal to the democratic principles of Germany. A human right does not weigh more than another due to geopolitical or historical factors. Germany has a responsibility, first and foremost to its citizens. I will not accept that I can be insulted, threatened, touched or undressed. I have a right to identity, a right to physical integrity, a right to family and a right to free movement. It was the task of the embassy to take me into custody on that day at the airport or to otherwise ensure and guarantee my safety. It should not have been a fight that I had to fight alone. I am not the collateral damage of Germany's historic war crimes. I am not the body on which discrimination offsets each other, and I am not a facade that can be categorized and classified based on its origin.

I am German.

I am Palestinian.

I am Muslim.

For this identity, I will not be ashamed and I will not be pressured. I will not allow my identity to be taken away and I will stand for my rights.

It is time for Germany to fulfill its duties.