On November 14, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made another argument in defense of Israel.
“Israel is a democracy – that must be said very clearly,” Scholz said in response to a comment by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said Israel’s legitimacy was “questioned because of its own fascism.” .
“There is no doubt about it,” the German leader said. “And we will emphasize in every conversation and at every opportunity that this is our view.”
At the time of Scholz’s remarks, more than 11,100 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli army, which launched its latest campaign in Gaza following the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 captured in Hamas attacks.
At the time of writing, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza exceeded 17,000 people.
Scholz’s comments were not a simple political observation.
The modern German republic, which for generations has attempted to atone for its Nazi past and its role in the Holocaust during World War II, has long made Israel’s security its Staatsräson (“reason of state”) ) – a term first coined in an essay by the former German ambassador to Israel, Rudolf Dreßler, in the early 2000s.
Israel’s war on Gaza, which has raged for more than 60 days, has only strengthened German political support for the Israeli state.
On Tuesday, officials in Saxony-Anhalt announced that applicants for naturalization in the East German state would have to commit in writing to Israel’s “right to exist” or risk being disqualified. be refused German citizenship.
This followed weeks of reports that German authorities were cracking down on demonstrations in support of Gaza in the current conflict.
“Moral point of view”
Academic Daniel Marwecki, author of Germany and Israel: Whitewashing and State Building, told Tel Aviv Tribune that “when German politicians talk about Israel today, they (do so) from a moral point of view.” .
“All of Germany’s top politicians think (that defending Israel) is the morally right thing to do because of Germany’s past,” he added.
The history of ties between Germany and Israel dates back to 1948, when the Israeli state was established following the end of the British mandate in Palestine.
Marwecki, a professor of international relations at the University of Hong Kong, said Germany’s determination to “whitewash” its international image following the Holocaust influenced its postwar approach to Israel .
This included West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s agreement to pay Israel post-Holocaust reparations in the form of goods and services in 1952, as the fledgling state attempted to develop its economy.
In 1965, West Germany and Israel established formal diplomatic relations.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 – and the end of the Cold War – a reunified Germany took a dual approach to tackling its past, where its relationship with Israel, Marwecki said, proved crucial .
This approach, he said, focused “the culture of German memory… increasingly on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism”, as Berlin sought to strengthen its role as a great European power alongside the United States. United.
Today, the German Federation is the largest economy in Europe and the fourth largest economy in the world.
“You are constantly on fire in this country”
But not everyone in Germany supports the commitment to Staatsräson.
Palestine advocates in Germany say support for Israel goes hand in hand with a relentless campaign to silence pro-Palestinian voices.
The examples, according to activists, are numerous. In 2019, for example, the German Bundestag passed a motion labeling the nonviolent anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as anti-Semitic.
And three years later, the state-funded Society for Democratic Culture in Berlin (VDK) was forced by a German court to release a secret dossier that portrayed German-Palestinian academic Anna Younes as an anti-government sympathizer. -Smite and terrorist, using data. collected in 2014.
Younes, who has already endured much emotional upheaval during this episode and, she said, many other “disinformation episodes”, told Tel Aviv Tribune that Germany’s unwavering support for the relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip by Israel had left her “completely speechless”.
“You are constantly on fire in this country,” Younes said, regarding what she calls a long-standing attempt by the German state to delegitimize national support for Palestine. “My demoralized attitude comes from living through this for so long.”
Younes was born and raised in East Berlin “right next to the wall.”
She said Germany’s support “for the genocide in Gaza” only served to show that “Palestinian lives… Muslim lives, Arab lives and non-white lives in Europe and the Middle East” are expendable.
“This is the message we are receiving from the powerful,” added Younes, who said nothing could dissuade her from “defending” Palestinian rights.
Last month, a German opinion poll found that only 31 percent of respondents supported Scholz’s uncompromising support for Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza.
And even those who support Israel refuse to ignore the suffering of the Palestinians.
A German national, Carsten, who attended a pro-Israel rally in Berlin after the events of October 7, said that while “Israel’s right to exist and…to defend itself (was) non-negotiable…almost everyone has significant concerns about much of Israel’s rights.” Strategies”.
The music director, who did not want his full name published, explained that “almost all Germans have ancestors or relatives who were involved in one way or another in the massacre of six million of Jews.”
Killing innocent civilians on both sides is “clearly wrong,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “If people choose sides, no matter what actions ‘their side’ takes, we are doomed to a dead end, more heartache and despair. »