Germany’s unconditional support for Israel at the ICJ
JVL Introduction
Germany’s relation to its past is, for obvious reasons, scarred by the crimes of the Nazi era. The process of its rehabilitation was chequered but over time this has become embedded in a deep unwillingness to criticise the state of Israel in any shape or form and to come down heavily on anyone who does so.
So even before the case before the ICJ had been presented Germany announced that “the claim that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip is false” and that it intended to intervene as a third party in the hearing “on Israel’s behalf”.
This unconditional support for Israel has caused waves, not least in the South, particularly in Namibia whose own genocidal experience at the hands of the Germans, 1904- 1908, remains a live political issue.
Stefan Talmon looks at Germany’s intention to intervene and the critical responses to it.
RK
This article was originally published by German Practice in International Law (GPIL) on Mon 15 Jan 2024. Read the original here.
Germany Rushes to Declare Intention to Intervene in the Genocide Case brought by South Africa Against Israel Before the International Court of Justice
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South Africa’s 84 page application to the ICJ included material (claimed and /or evidenced) concerning Israel’s genocidal intentions and acts in many parts of the occupied territories. That material covered events over several decades and earlier judgements reached concerning Israel’s behaviour by the relevant law courts and by internationally respected fact-finding missions (eg that led by Archbishop Tutu).
Given the above, Germany’s legal arguments simply don’t stack up.
This article fully exposes Germany’s hypocrisy and cant. It claims to have learnt from its dreadful past and has used that claim to preach others on human rights. However, it is openly applying the false lesson of unconditional support for Israel, even in the face of Israel’s unspeakable acts, even at the expense of Germany’s standing in much of the world, even in contradiction to Germany’s own previously stated position on genocide.
Germany’s perfidious interpretation of its obligations is not confined to its political, diplomatic, financial and military reinforcement of Israel. At home, freedom of expression is constantly denied; almost any statement of support for Palestinians is criminalised as antisemitic. Iris Hefets, an Israeli Jewish woman and leading member of Jüdische Stimme, was again arrested two weeks ago while carrying a sign reading “Jews against genocide”. At the same time prominent politicians across the board regularly make xenophobic and islamophobic statements.
In view of the blanket pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian message from the whole political spectrum, almost the entire media and much of the cultural establishment, a recent poll by German public service broadcaster ZDF provides a slight and unexpected glimmer of hope. Despite a tendentious question referring to the Hamas terror attacks, only 25% answered that they considered Israel’s actions in Gaza to be justified, while 61% did not.
Germany’s ruling class seems at odds with its population in this as in so many matters.
Hamas committing Genocide is not a defence for Israel, if we follow that logic then America should have completely wiped Germa y off the face of the earth at the end of WWII
This is a legal analysis however the decision of Germany to actively aid Israel’s genocide, including the supply of tank ammunition, cannot be understood in terms of legal sophistry.
The German state was supposed to be de-Nazified after the war. This never happened for many reasons, including the Cold War. In the 1950s the then West Germany agreed a reparations deal with Israel, not for the surviving victims but for the Israeli state which was seen as the living heir of those who died.
The price was Israeli silence over the presence of leading Nazis in the German civil service and judiciary including Hans Globke, Adeneur’s closest advisor and one of the people who drafted the Nuremberg Laws.
It was the alliance with Israel that enabled West Germany to come out of the cold as an equal member of the NATO alliance. Atoning for the Holocaust was the pretext but it was never the real reason. To have done that it would have had to thoroughly deNazify, prosecute whilst they were still relatively young the Nazi war criminals and come to terms with the genocide in Namibia which provided the living link with the Jewish holocaust.
Today Germany’s support for Israeli genocide enables it to come to terms with the Holocaust, or at least the Jewish victims of it. That is why even the far -right AfD, for whom the Holocaust is merely a speck of birdshit in Germany’s history according to one AfD leader, is avidly pro-Israel.
Support for Israel’s genocide helps it atone for and in many cases relativise the Jewish Holocaust.
German Human Rights groups could replicate the ICJP case lodged with Scotland Yard
Germany support a far right fascist state? Surely not!
Mind you – they should know a genocide when they see one (or two, or three).
Germany’s blinkered response to SA’s case before the ICJ demonstrates that its government has never learned the lessons of WW2. Israel is a victim of its own racism, just as the German people were under Hitler.