Why is Germany so violently opposed to Palestine?

by Denizal Jegichi
Author and Researcher

Since Israel recently started its war in the Gaza Strip, Germany has continued to support its ally. Despite growing warnings of genocide from the Israeli military, the German government remained unmoved. Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared on October 12 that "Germany stands by Israel", and Germany has not deviated from this position.

The German government not only provided extensive political and diplomatic support to Israel but also accelerated arms exports to facilitate Israel's massacre of Palestinian civilians. Germany's political elite flatly rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and relentlessly repeated the false claim that Israel has a "right to self-defense" against the occupied Palestinian people under international law. This country continues to ignore decades of racism and ethnic cleansing. Germany's political elite has adopted its position of condemning the Holocaust by supporting Israel, calling its security a "German cause". However, under the pretext of "moral action" and "paying for crime," German politicians and officials have further normalized anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism, justified stronger anti-immigrant policies, and continued anti-immigrant policies. We try. to stop politics. Reducing immigration policy. Semitism among white Germans. As a national policy towards Palestine

The marginalization of Palestinians in German society and the suppression of Palestinian activities are not new phenomena in Germany. By October 7, the tactics of the German authorities against Palestine had already intensified. Demonstrations were banned, pro-Palestinian voices, including Jewish activists, were silenced, and cultural events and award ceremonies were halted.

So it's no surprise that protests and police violence have escalated in recent weeks. Many pro-Palestinian demonstrations were banned, sometimes allowed to take place only minutes before they started or with a heavy police presence. Officials cited threats to public safety and potential displays of anti-Semitism as reasons for the ban. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested in the weeks since Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip. Many people suffered police brutality and some were investigated for incitement to hatred. Even the anti-Zionist voices of minority Jews were attacked.

Freedom of expression was also suppressed in the pro-Palestinian movement. The federal interior ministry recently banned the slogan "From the river to the sea" because it calls for the destruction of Israel. The state of Bavaria called the expression a "symbol of terror". The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), one of Germany's main political parties, has also publicly stated that the phrase "Free Palestine" is inappropriate in Germany. This means "the destruction of the Jewish state, the only democracy in the region, by Islamic terrorists."

Freedom of expression has also been criticized in educational institutions. As German universities followed the government's pro-Israel stance, students protesting on campus faced police brutality and smear campaigns in the media.

Pro-Palestinian symbols such as keffiyeh scarves have been banned in some institutions. A school teacher in Berlin assaulted a student who was holding a Palestinian flag.

This systematic repression of the pro-Palestinian movement reflects the dystopian reality of Germany. In Germany, opposing the genocide is considered disloyal to the German state and warrants criminal liability. German authorities have clearly defined opposition to Palestine as a national interest and national policy. They wholeheartedly support the existence of Israel in its current form of apartheid, which requires continued violence against the indigenous Palestinians. This certainly does not contradict Germany's ongoing history of genocide and racism.

Germany's racism is blamed on immigrants

The massacre in Gaza further fueled the xenophobic and racist sentiments that were already widespread in Germany. German authorities actively sought to portray Muslims and Arabs in particular, and minorities in general, as dangerous to German society.

On November 8, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on Palestinians and German Arabs to distance themselves from Hamas and anti-Semitism. In doing so, he indirectly made an entire demographic suspect of terrorism, as the Palestinian resistance movement was labeled a "terrorist organization" by the German state.

A little over a week later, a bill linking German citizenship with a formal commitment to Israel's right to exist was submitted to the German parliament. A month later, the state of Saxony-Anhalt issued a separate decree requiring citizenship applicants to declare support for "Israel's right to exist."

"We don't want anti-Semites to become German citizens," Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in an interview last November.

Claims that immigrants pose a terrorist threat and bring and spread anti-Semitism have been used as the basis for changes in Germany's immigration and refugee policies. CDU leader Friedrich Merz said Germany cannot accept refugees from Gaza. "We have enough anti-Semitic youth in our country."

Legal measures are already being taken to reduce immigration. Last October, the federal government backed legislation that would allow for stricter deportation policies to make it easier to deport rejected asylum seekers. But the racism and xenophobia rampant in this country is not limited to politics. They are now defining what appears to be a social consensus contained in a manifesto published by the right-wing German tabloid BILD and instructing immigrants on how to behave in Germany. Citing the influx of Arab refugees over the past decade, the paper published 50 guidelines on what is and is not acceptable in Germany.

The preface of the statement reads: “Our world is in chaos and we are in the middle of it. "After the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel, we are experiencing a new level of hatred against the values ​​of our country, democracy, and Germany."

Then he heard the German "NO!" He announces it. You have to say it. antisemitism and "We love life, not death", "Please and thank you", "We do not wear veils or veils", and "We do not marry children". And men cannot have more than one wife.

The manifesto's rampant Islamophobia is clear. But more importantly, it shows the insanity of white Germans who consider themselves "dangerous" and "victims" even as Palestinians suffer genocide in their homeland.

It also exposes the roots of white supremacy in German society. Indeed, the response of the German authorities to the situation in Gaza shows that they want to reinforce and reinforce the racist hierarchy of German society. That is, white Germans in the lead and "Third World" people, including victims of Israeli violence. the other hand. At the bottom, they are expected to be quiet, do dirty work, and gratefully "integrate" into German society.

Hiding anti-Semitism in Germany

But there is something far more damaging in the misrepresentation of German anti-Semitism as a foreign "import" brought to Germany by non-white immigrants. This increasingly popular lie hides Germany's history of brutal anti-Semitism and shifts the responsibility for Jewish suffering onto the Palestinians, victims of Europe's racist colonial regimes.

It also hides the current anti-Semitic state of German society. Anti-Jewish sentiment persists in Germany. According to official statistics, most documented anti-Semitic incidents are committed by the political right. It is no coincidence that the far-right party AfD has reached a record level of popularity in recent weeks. According to a mid-December opinion poll, this share is now at 23%, second only to the right-wing CDU and well ahead of all parties in the current ruling coalition. AfD leaders glorify German nationalism and downplay the crimes of the Nazi regime while glossing over anti-Semitism against immigrants and calling on the federal government to prioritize combating "imported anti-Semitism."

This combination of Zionism and toxic German nationalism could further fuel racist violence against minorities, including the Jewish community. Germany's anti-Palestinian policy should be seen as a continuation, not a response, to Germany's racist crimes. Palestinians and other victims of Israeli and German violence were never considered human beings. Its role in the genocide in Palestine, as well as its support for colonial genocide in Germany apartheid in South Africa, and racist regimes elsewhere (as if it never received enough attention in public debate), is indicative of racist hierarchies and himself. was represented as a "civilized" person. And it is a "morally superior" nation.

German-sponsored genocide in Palestine thus serves to reinforce the illusion of white German hegemony. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the editorial position of Urdu Voice.