The US gets a lot of flack for being Israel’s undying supporter and enabler. It’s not exactly unwarranted considering the amount of military aid and weapons that the US has supplied to Israel, not to mention the myriad vetoes of UN Security Council Resolutions. However, the UK and Germany also deserve a lot of blame for helping create this conflict and for continued military and diplomatic support for Israel despite clear signs of war crimes and human rights abuses.
With Germany in particular, it’s a rather odd relationship. Anti-Semitism trickled down from the government itself in the 1930s. Jews were blamed for German society’s problems. The country, in large part, was Nazified. This culminated with the Holocaust and the mass execution of Jews and others who were seen as undesirable.
After Germany’s defeat in 1945 during WWII, the situation was dire and the country was divided. A complex process of denazification began. Fast forward to today, and Germany is a staunch supporter of Israel. Not only does Germany provide millions of Euros’ worth of defense equipment to Israel, it has also paid over $90 billion in restitution to Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
Germany expressed its backing of Israel after Hamas’ October 7th attack. Even after months of atrocities committed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and vile language used by Israeli government officials to dehumanize Palestinians, Germany decided to intervene on Israel’s behalf during South Africa’s genocide case against the rogue state at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Although Germany is supposed to be a vibrant democracy with civil liberties and freedom of expression, the country actually banned some pro-Palestine protests after October 7th. According to The Nation, some “protests were met with draconian measures. Police used pepper spray, water cannons, and excessive force.” Apparently, calling for a ceasefire and standing up for human rights are anti-Semitic.
When filmmakers Yuval Abraham (an Israeli) and Basel Adra (a Palestinian) won an award at the Berlinale film festival in Germany for their documentary No Other Land, Abraham used his acceptance speech to criticize apartheid in the West Bank and call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Oh, the horror! Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, ran over to X to essentially say that Abraham’s speech was intolerable and anti-Semitic. That’s right — we’ve reached the point in history when Germans are calling Israeli Jews anti-Semitic.
In short, Germany went from one extreme to the other. This appears to be Germany’s way of assuaging itself of guilt, but it doesn’t seem like the ideal way to solve a problem or address a historical injustice. You can’t make up for your own genocide against one group of people by supporting those people’s genocide against another group of people. It doesn’t somehow negate your own wrongdoings from the past.
One has to wonder: Is Germany once again on the wrong side of history?
Maximum Intifada 
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