Germany can help stop the Gaza genocide

Anyone who has walked the pavements of German cities and towns has seen the ‘Stolpersteine’ commemorative brass plates embedded in the ground, each dedicated to Nazi victims. They are placed in the pavement at their last home address. On each is the victim name, year of birth, date of arrest and date of death. They are a chilling reminder from history.

Germany is one of the few countries to honestly confront its own history, process the horrible realities of what happened and attempt to make amends, in some form or other, over the decades. 

Following the war and in recent decades, Germany has developed into a modern, tolerant and caring society, widely respected for its commitment to the rule of law. It has over the decades developed a sophisticated human rights framework to guide its foreign policy, as the its Foreign Ministry states: 

“Germany’s commitment to human rights work is a lesson learned from the darkest chapter of our history. Human dignity and inviolable and inalienable human rights are accordingly enshrined in Article 1 of Germany’s Basic Law ‘as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world’. The Basic Law thus not only guarantees human rights in Germany, but also obliges us to work to protect human dignity and fundamental freedoms throughout the world.”

Germany has as a result been a strong supporter not only of multilateral institutions like the Council of Europe, OSCE and UN Human Rights Council but has been for many decades the paymaster for the post-war peace project of European integration, today’s European Union.

In his book, ‘Berlin Rules’ former British ambassador in Berlin Paul Lever describes how German economic and political dominance shapes the EU, stating that Germany did not set out to lead but others decided to follow. 

Germany has steered wisely through reunification, the expansion of the EU eastward and steered clear of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. 

Gitta Sereny wrote in her book ‘The German Trauma’ that although continuing to acknowledge Germany’s recent history, young Germans can see it from the correct perspective without being weighed down by it. 

Given such a proud history and progression on human rights over the past 80 years, many Europeans cannot now understand the German position in relation to, what many experts and human rights organisations view, as an ongoing genocide today in Gaza. 

The UN Genocide Convention defines it as: 

“...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. 

Readers can make their own minds up, but tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Gaza, including journalists, doctors, nurses, aid workers. Children are being starved to death. We also know from their public statements that this killing is the intent of this extremist Israeli government. 

The horrific terrorist attacks of Oct 7th were war crimes committed by Hamas against hundreds of civilians and must be condemned as such, but the EU has been completely absent in any efforts to end the subsequent carnage. 

Decades of diplomacy, including from Germany, focused on a two-state solution seem now dead. Everyone is sick of the empty political statements. That President von der Leyen, the one global leader in the EU institutions, has been so silent is especially galling. 

Under increasing pressure from the Irish, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish and other governments, EU Foreign Ministers have finally started to seriously consider the EU-Israel Association Agreement which underpins the Israeli economy, with the EU being its biggest trading partner.

But at every step, Germany blocks any action by its European partners in taking action on trade against Israel. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is proceeding with its plans. 

German leaders often state that their ‘Staatsräson’ is to stand by Israel. Given their history, that is understandable, however if Germany is a true friend of Israel, then surely it has a duty to protect Israel even from itself? As Germany knows only too well, genocides not only inflict horrific suffering on the victims, but they also can destroy the souls of the perpetrators. 

Our children’s generation may well be placing ‘Stolpersteine’ style commemorative brass plates in the pavements of Gaza city.