Gaza: Germany’s Dangerous Genocide denial
JVL Introduction
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has issued a furious and detailed statement focused on the German response to what Israel has been doing in Gaza but, as noted within this piece. much of the criticism applies to many other nations, not least the UK. There is a particular focus on the ways that Civil Society organisations contribute to German denial that Gaza is experiencing a genocide.
This piece goes through every aspect of why what has been happening IS a genocide and will be useful for all of us still confronted by argument. This version from their website lacks the weblinks you may want to follow in this PDF version of the statement.
It is crucial to always remember the internationally recognised Definition of Genocide noting especially Articles 2 and 3, the latter of which includes complicity which should be of concern not only to the German government but others most obviously the USA but also the UK.
(The Institute was named after Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish jurist, was born in 1900 in Poland, He coined the word “genocide” out of determination that there should be an international law against the destruction of groups. (you can read more about him on the US Holocaust Encyclopedia website)
LL
This article was originally published by The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security on Wed 14 Jan 2026. Read the original here.
Statement on the Role of Civil Society Organizations in Sustaining German Genocide Denial
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This is a very thorough analysis of the German State’s sponsorship of genocide denial. Genocide Denial is the brother of Holocaust Denial and should be recognised as such.
This statement is extremely useful coming as it does from the Lemkin Institute, named after the Polish Jewish lawyer Ralph Lemkin who coined the term ‘genocide’ and who was in large part responsible for the Genocide Convention.
It shames not just the German state in its espousal of genocide denial but those like Keir Starmer who, in the face of all the evidence, continue to deny that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
Of course the German State’s culpability is particularly great given its involvement in so many previous genocides. Not simply the Nazi genocide but the Maji Maji genocide in East Africa, the Herero-Nama genocide in SW Africa and the Armenian genocide.
There is barely a genocide that the German state, in defiance of its own population, hasn’t smiled upon. Whilst we would expect this from the far-right AfD, the Christian Democrats and SPD, we also have the spectacle of Die Grunen, Germany’s Green Party under its former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock being the most enthusiastic apologist for the genocide in Gaza.
Yes, another brilliant statement. But our collective failure in the UK is ensuring that our Labour government, and specifically Keir Starmer, end their/our continuing support for Israel, both hidden and open — military, financial, religious and political — all of which violate international human rights law and make us as a nation complicit in the genocide. Us. All of us, not just Starmer.
These alternative realities do provide another “Ich habe es nicht gewusst”.