Lobby Watch 22 October 2025
Philip Krämer has represented Germany’s Greens in the Bundestag. (S. Kaminski)
Wounded child, no surviving family.
Nearly two years after it first emerged, the acronym WCNSF serves as a shocking reminder of the extremes to which Israel has gone in Gaza.
Infants were not only orphaned, they were left without grandparents and siblings. The massacres were constant – and given that Palestinians are still being killed – it would be foolhardy to say they have stopped.
When Israel commits such horrors, how can any defender of the young act as an apologist for that state?
The German politician Philip Krämer needs to answer that question. As well as chairing a child protection association in the city of Darmstadt, he undertakes research and advocacy work for the pro-Israel group named the European Leadership Network (Elnet).
From 2021 until earlier this year, Krämer sat in Germany’s national assembly, the Bundestag, as a representative of the Greens. Having long abandoned its pacifist roots, that party now applauds wars, heedless of their effects on humanity and nature.
In the decade preceding the Gaza genocide, the US and Germany were the largest suppliers of weapons to Israel.
Krämer was adamant that arms deliveries should continue after the genocide got underway. In October 2023, he contended that Staatsräson – the idea that Israel’s “security” is considered a “reason of state” or basic obligation for Germany – would otherwise make no sense.
The lobbying he undertakes as part of his job with Elnet is focused on weapons cooperation between Israel and Germany.
In a recent paper published by Elnet, Krämer lauded Israel’s “space-based reconnaissance” activities. “Europe’s future security policy begins in space and with Israel as a reliable partner,” he wrote.
“Shared values” waffle
Krämer is no stranger to Elnet.
Back in 2022, he was part of a “young leaders” delegation which the pressure group brought to the Middle East.
Participants in that trip were given an opportunity to see the illustrious Iron Dome system close up. That missile interceptor has been designed to ensure that Israel can attack Gaza, with minimal consequences for Israel itself.
Last year, Krämer spoke at an Elnet propaganda event in Berlin, where he hailed Israel as a “partner of shared values.”
Germany and Israel share the fact that within the past 85 years, both have demonstrated that they place very little value on human lives. Both have resorted to barbarism, while pretending they were acting in the name of civilization.
That may not have been what Krämer had in mind as he waffled about “shared values” while Israel subjected Gaza to a holocaust.
Rather than condemning Israel for butchering children, he has been smearing defenders of Palestinian rights.
During November 2023, the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Child Murderer Here” were found on the windows of a Starbucks café in Darmstadt. Krämer alleged that the graffiti demonized Israel “in an anti-Semitic sense.”
While the official boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement has not targeted Starbucks, the corporation’s management angered many activists the previous month when it sued a staff union that had expressed solidarity with Palestine.
Criticizing violence against Palestinians or pointing out that Israel’s state ideology Zionism is racist are not the same as hostility toward Jews based on their religion or ethnicity. Like most pro-Israel lobbyists, however, Krämer habitually portrays legitimate comments as motivated by anti-Jewish bigotry.
When Israeli football fans went on the rampage in Amsterdam during November 2024, he distorted reality by claiming that the hooligans were actually victims of “brutal violence and blind hatred.”
That same month, the Bundestag approved a resolution calling for the punishment of organizations that promote BDS activities or cast doubt on Israel’s “right to exist.”
The Greens used to be staunch supporters of civil liberties, including freedom of expression. Yet when campaigners warned about the chilling effects of the resolution, Krämer claimed they were attempting “to make anti-Zionism socially acceptable.”
Anti-Zionism should not only be socially acceptable but regarded as a duty for everyone who believes in equality and justice.
Promoting the trade in arms between Germany and Israel – is, by contrast, completely unacceptable.
Despite some restrictions on weapons earmarked for use in Gaza, the German-Israel arms trade has continued. Reports indicate that the German military is on the cusp of equipping itself with “combat vehicles” made by Israel Aerospace Industries and its subsidiary Elta.
Promoting the weapons trade at a time of genocide constitutes assistance for the worst crime imaginable. It defies belief that anyone involved in such promotion could be trusted with running a charity dedicated to the rights of children.
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