The Electronic Intifada 21 February 2024
Throughout Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, Germany has provided both material and diplomatic support.
The German government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz publicly affirmed its support for Israel’s deliberate infliction of famine on 2.3 million civilians in Gaza – half of whom are children – while it bombs them indiscriminately, killing entire families.
In the International Court of Justice, Germany last month placed its weight behind Israel’s defense against genocide accusations.
Over the past year, German military sales to Israel have increased tenfold, with the German government speeding up arms sales worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Germany considers its support for Israel to be “reparations” for the Holocaust, even though Israel did not exist at the time and was not the victim. It was European Jews who were the victims of the genocidal German government and its genocidal EU partners.
German institutions and the police have also been cracking down on Palestinians in Germany and other activists opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Germany’s support for it.
“Virtually every major institution in Germany has been engaged in a wave of repression of ethnic minority communities – the scale and intensity of which is unprecedented in Germany’s postwar history,” Kumars Salehi, a visiting professor of German at Oklahoma State University, wrote in The Hill in December.
“The targets are Palestinians, other people of color and Jewish anti-Zionists alike.”
The German government banned a series of protests of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Footage provided by activist group Palästina Spricht (Palestine Speaks), which can be seen in the video above, shows German police beating, attacking and detaining protesters.
Representatives of Muslim-majority countries raised the issue of increased Islamophobia with the German government at the United Nations.
“The rise of attacks on mosques and NSU (neo-Nazi) murders does demonstrate deep systemic failures of the German police and justice system in tackling such crimes,” said Turkey’s envoy.
Berlin authorities said they banned more than half of the 41 scheduled Gaza solidarity protests, fearing they would “emotionalize” Palestinians, The New York Times reported.
“I’ve been living in Berlin for 17 years now, and I have never experienced anything like this,” one activist, who requested that his identity be protected, told The Electronic Intifada.
“Germany would like us to pay the price for their past,” Palestinian activist and writer Majed Abusalama said.
“It also feels like this anti-Semitism that is within German society is being deflected on Palestinians,” the activist added.
Abusalama said, “Thousands of police are patrolling our streets, arresting our people, racially profiling only Arab-looking men and Palestinian-looking people, people of color, Black, with kuffiyehs.”
Both described German police crackdown on activists during Palestine solidarity protests.
“Police are pepper spraying people in their faces,” the interviewee who chose to remain anonymous said.
“I’m not exaggerating to say that some areas like Neukölln are really occupied by the police.”
Footage by Palästina Spricht, an activist group based in Germany. Thumbnail picture by Michael Kuenne / ZUMA Press.
