It can't, municipalities and states can, and the EU law allowing for this requires showing they're a threat to public safety (which is why it's not a federal matter the federation doesn't do public safety). The Berlin state government wants to expel some people, so far no other state has made similar moves, and it's very questionable whether Berlin courts will let them do it. And then there's federal courts. And then the ECJ.

How can Germany “deport” an EU citizen?

Have a half-dozen men with guns grab the person, shove them into the back of a squad car, drive them to a jail, make them wait in the jail until transport can be arranged, drag them to a plane, force them onto the plane, fly the plane to an Israeli-occupied territory, kick the person out of the plane into the hands of some genocidal Israeli lunatics, and leave.

Is there any way for them to block an EU citizen from coming back into Germany?

Tear up their travel documents, for starters. Sending them to a country where they are at extreme risk of permanent arrest, torture, and execution also works.

That depends on who wins.

The good side of history isn't really that of police states built on violence and blood. Germany government is not alone in supporting israel, pretty much every government rooted in authority share the same values.

Name a more dynamic duo: German 🤝 being on the wrong side of history

People who want extreme 'order' are really good at organizing and fund raising, and breaking the law and daring the rest of us to do something about it. People who like making sure everyone has rights and those rights are protected aren't.

Because the Russian Federation is a belligerent nation undermining EU institutions^1^, carrying out acts of sabotage on EU soil^2^, threatening nuclear war regularly^3^, threatening to reconquer EU member states^4^, and conducting genocide in Ukraine^5^.

And that is not to mention that actions taken by Kremlin assets in the US and Hungary.

1: https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/27/russia-putin-disinformation-hybrid-warfare-europe/

2: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-europe-hybrid-campaign-d61887dd3ec6151adf354c5bd3e6273e

3: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/25/europe/putin-nuclear-warns-west-missile-strikes-ukraine-intl-latam/index.html

4: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-zaporozhzhia-nato-invade-balitsky-1832236

5: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1161281

The author of the article links to their own earlier article in the Intercept that goes in detail: https://theintercept.com/2025/03/31/germany-gaza-protesters-deport/

The only event that tied the four cases together was the allegation that the protesters participated in the university occupation, which involved property damage, and alleged obstruction of an arrest — a so-called de-arrest aimed at blocking a fellow protesters’ detention. None of the protesters are accused of any particular acts of vandalism or the de-arrest at the university. Instead, the deportation order cites the suspicion that they took part in a coordinated group action. (The Free University told The Intercept it had no knowledge of the deportation orders.)

Some of the allegations are minor. Two, for example, are accused of calling a police officer “fascist” — insulting an officer, which is a crime. Three are accused of demonstrating with groups chanting slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine Will be Free” — which was outlawed last year in Germany — and “free Palestine.” Authorities also claim all four shouted antisemitic or anti-Israel slogans, though none are specified.

Two are accused of grabbing an officers’ or another protesters’ arm in an attempt to stop arrests at the train station sit-in.

O’Brien, one of the Irish citizens, is the only one of the four whose deportation order included a charge – the accusation that he called a police officer a “fascist” – that has been brought before a criminal court in Berlin, where he was acquitted.

All four are accused, without evidence, of supporting Hamas, a group Germany has designated as a terrorist organization.

You're being downvoted for your strawman framing. Recognising that Netanyahu's actions in Gaza (and farther, now) are unethical and illegal is absolutely not the same as calling for another Jewish genocide. Being pro-Palestine does not mean you're calling for the destruction of Israel or the murder of Jews.

There seems to be a fairly successful effort to frame any opposition of Israel's actions as antisemitic, which is a disgraceful attempt to use the suffering of Jewish ancestors as a shield against criticism today.

who is calling for this?

FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸

Strawman! There is an active ongoing genocide against Palestinians right now, that is the reality, not the one you just made up

That was a thing that happened at the protest in general. The state was not able to prove any of the now deported committed any crimes though (it even says so in your source and the part you quoted was about the protests in general, not the specific people about to be deported). That is one of the mayor reasons it is so problematic, just skipping presumption of innocence and letting the executive punish someone for an alleged crime without having to prove that crime.

Plus Welt is Springer media, so a pretty unreliable source.