Bob Vylan Singer Deported at BER Over Pro-Palestine Views
German federal police claimed that letting the band's frontman into the country would be a threat to national security. But it's still not clear what the legal basis for the ban was.
Bob Vylan frontman Pascal Robinson-Foster. Image: Wikimedia Commons
At the Berlinale this year, veteran filmmaker and jury president Wim Wenders described artistic creation as "the opposite of politics," in an attempt to distance the festival from questions about Israel and Gaza. But as far as culture and politics being unrelated, it seems that the German immigration authorities have not gotten that memo.
Last month, the frontman of popular British punk rap duo Bob Vylan, Pascal Robinson-Foster, was denied entry into Germany at Berlin's airport last month over his pro-Palestine stance. According to documents obtained by The Intercept, the German federal police detained the singer upon landing and then deported him back to the UK, justifying the entry ban by referencing the band's performance at Glastonbury last year, during which they led a chant of "death, death to the IDF."
It’s frankly absurd to suggest that I’m a threat to German national security.
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