Sanctions were once sold as a gentler foreign policy tool for exerting pressure on dictatorships and terrorist organizations. Yet measures like banning individuals from having bank accounts or traveling are increasingly used to chill free speech in Europe.

Doğru lives in Berlin and is much more affected by the sanctions than others. “You can’t even buy me a coffee,” says Doğru during an interview in Berlin. “In theory, I’m not even allowed to help myself to anything in the fridge after my wife went shopping.” The German Bundesbank, which is in charge of enforcing sanctions, granted him an exemption to withdraw a minimum subsistence allowance of €506 a month from his bank account. And even this tiny sum was temporarily blocked by his bank. “I can’t feed my newborn babies,” says Doğru. “On an existential level, you’re reduced to zero.”

  • reksas
    3·
    7 days ago

    lets think hypotetically that israel didnt do anything wrong to anyone ever and was a model country. Would this kind of thing be any more “acceptable” even then? Imagine if this happened to you if you say somethign bad say… about Denmark? France? Finland?

    What kind of behaviour would ever warrant something like this? Do even neonazis get treated like this?

    This is horrifying. This doesn’t “chill” free speech, this completely annihilates it. Because this is happening, free speech is no longer a thing as this is exactly what free speech rights are supposed to protect you from -> government persecuting you for your opinions.