Germany is, after the United States, the country that supplies the most weapons to Israel. Its historical responsibility for the Holocaust, which for decades has led the German Government to unwaveringly support the Government of Israel, has become a real headache for the European country. The Executive of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has long struggled to maintain the balance between sending weapons to Israel and avoiding human rights violations. Meanwhile, more and more voices accuse him of double standards and ask to stop the supply.
Scholz warned the Israeli government on Saturday that a large-scale military offensive on Rafah would be “irresponsible.” The statements were made during an event organized by the German newspaper group RND in the town of Potsdam, near Berlin. The foreign minister noted that an invasion of Rafah would not be possible “without an incredible number of human casualties of innocent civilians.” In response to a question about the supply of weapons, Scholz stated that the German government only supplies weapons if it is clear in specific cases that they will not be used in controversial situations, according to international law.
The Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Ministry avoid the question of whether Israel has committed war crimes or if there is a risk of it committing them. At all times, the coalition government – made up of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals – claims to not know if and how the weapons supplied by Germany are being used in Gaza. They stick to a double message that they repeat tirelessly: on the one hand, Israel has the right to defend itself after the Hamas attack and on the other, they claim to be working intensely to ensure compliance with international law.
But are war crimes being committed with weapons made in Germany? At least, the risk is evident, as many experts warn. The United Nations Human Rights Council already approved a resolution in April calling for the suspension of arms shipments to Israel. In the text he accuses the Israeli Army of having committed “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden publicly warned that he will not deliver new bombs, artillery shells and other offensive weapons to Israel if it goes ahead with its plans for a large-scale ground operation in Rafah, southern Gaza. .
Since Germany is also one of the main suppliers of weapons to Israel, should the Scholz government follow in the US’s footsteps and also threaten to stop the arms supply? “That is currently being discussed, I cannot answer that yet,” the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, simply responded when asked directly by German public television ZDF.
For foreign policy expert Ralf Stegner of the Social Democratic Party, the US president’s statement could also serve as an example for Germany. “The US is Israel’s greatest defender, yet the Biden administration is limiting arms deliveries to Israel because the Netanyahu government largely ignores the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in their fight against Hamas terror.” Stegner told Der Spiegel. “This position is also fundamentally correct for Germany,” she stressed.
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“Case by case”
The Government insists that arms deliveries, no matter where, are decisions made by the Government on a case-by-case basis after a thorough examination. Once the decision is made, they report it, but not before.
A spokeswoman for the German Executive responds to Morning Express about whether following in Biden’s footsteps is being debated: “The German Government has repeatedly warned, emphatically and at a high level, against a military offensive in the city of Rafah. “Our position is closely coordinated with that of the United States,” she maintains. “With regard to German arms exports to Israel,” she adds, “our basic rules apply: decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the general circumstances and within the German legal framework.” The spokesperson assures that human rights and international humanitarian law are taken into account in these “decisions.”
In total, the German Government approved in 2023 the export to Israel of war weapons – which are a special category of general military equipment – worth 20.1 million euros. This amount is included in the arms authorizations to Israel, which last year amounted to 326.5 million euros, ten times more than the previous year. The majority of authorized exports corresponded to land vehicles and technology for the development, manufacturing, operation, maintenance and repair of weapons. Meanwhile, from January to March of this year, exports amounted to 10 million euros, of which 32,449 euros were authorizations for war weapons, according to a parliamentary response last month.
In this context, Germany had to defend itself before the International Court of Justice in The Hague for these shipments after Nicaragua accused them of complicity in genocide. But the German government argued in court that 98% of the exports approved since the Hamas attack on Israel were not weapons of war. The urgent demand was rejected.
What are the limits
Criticism of Germany led Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to announce in March that she would send a delegation to Israel. However, the delegation has not yet traveled. Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas by reducing Gaza to rubble has put pressure on German leaders to clarify the limits of the carte blanche they appear to have granted to the Israeli government.
Political support for Israel continues to be in line with the declaration of the then German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who in 2008 stated before the Knesset – the Israeli parliament – that the security and existence of Israel are a “reason of state” for Germany. . Now, Germany’s historical responsibility, after the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust, collides with the international humanitarian law that Berlin must guarantee.
This is something that a group of 37 German organizations and civil associations, including Amnesty International, Oxfam Germany and Doctors of the World, reminded the German Executive in an open letter. In the letter published at the beginning of the month, they asked him to stop arms exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza and pointed out that international law must be fully respected in all military actions.
Fear of being declared anti-Semitic
But it is not only politicians who suffer from the historical burden. The German media and society hardly dare to speak openly about what is happening in that region of the world, much less to criticize the Government of Israel, for fear of being accused of being anti-Semitic. Any statement can end up being the center of a whole controversy and be equivalent to being branded anti-Semitic and canceled in areas ranging from culture and art to academia.
The protests at the universities only arrived a few days ago, but in a very minority way, and were quickly dissolved by the police. Any attempt to organize a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza is frustrated under the justification of avoiding possible incitement to hatred. This was the case of a pro-Palestinian congress in Berlin in which Gaza was going to be discussed. In addition, after its cancellation, they prevented the entry into the country of the former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis and the doctor and rector of the University of Glasgow, Ghassan Abu Sittah, who wanted to report on what he had experienced in Gaza during his work with Doctors Without Borders.
However, the pressure on Germany has increased to such a level that it will have no choice but to analyze in depth where the defense of human rights, as well as freedom of expression, falls within its historical responsibility towards Israel and ask itself to what extent. arrives.
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