When I tell you that this text is about dying Palestinian children – will you click away? Wipe further? Look somewhere else? Because you broke yourself in the pictures of suffering, hunger and destruction? Because the bombs have been falling for almost 600 days now and don’t seem to change in this death strip called Gaza? Because we Germans are not entitled to interpret with the index finger to Israel?
If you answer all of these questions internally with “yes”, Zvi Sukkot would have reached his goal. A shocking calculation: “Everyone has got used to the fact that you can kill 100 people in Gaza in one night,” he said. “Nobody in the world is interested.”
100 dead per night in Gaza: normal. More than 19 months of war: everyday life.
Everyday life for the suffering people in Dschabalia, Nuseirrat or Chan Junis who get up every morning and do not know whether their apartment is still standing in the evening. And what to eat until then.
Everyday life for us reporters at starthat we report less and less about the daily bombing of the Israeli military.
Everyday life for you as a reader, whose interest in the situation in the Middle East – our click numbers – shows noticeably.
And everyday life for German politicians who, on October 7 on October 7, who are importantly trying to rescue the fading memories of the Hamas terror on foreign trips to visitors who visit the places of horror-and routinely squeeze into a conversation corset. In the end, there is only air for a few thin sets for the location in Gaza.
Israel commits war crimes. We Germans look at
But war must never become everyday life. This is exactly what Israel’s head of government is doing. He may say that often,. In the end, he knows exactly: When the bombs stop falling on Gaza, the day is approaching on which his shaky government collapses and he is on trial due to allegations of corruption.
It may be painful to pronounce this, but: under Netanyahu’s leadership commits Israel – the state that the Federal Republic is connected to the worst possible atrocity of human history like no other – especially war crimes. And we Germans not only watch it, for far too long – we also deliver the weapons for it.
It is not too late to change that.
Last week, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier traveled to Jerusalem. Official colleague Jitzchak Duke invited to the festive dinner, there was the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relationships between the two countries. The host to the host: “The friendship between Germany and Israel is a gift – and also a responsibility.” Only to be responsible for friendship is to be able to clearly address unpleasant truths.
The idea that we Germans have had to hold back with criticism of Israeli politics has always been a misleading. Germany has written the defense of Israel’s right to exist on the black-red-gold flag, but at the top of its Basic Law, Article 1, also the respect for human dignity.
The teachings from the Holocaust have always been multi -dimensional: Jews should never feel pursued in this world again. And, in general formulated, a people should never be dehumanized again. A state bundle does not release the obligation to distinguish law and wrong.
“Don’t judge us! Not now!”
if you let houses go into the air with a sounding laugh with a blue dye; if a famine is provoked because aid goods are deliberately held back as in the past two months; When Benjamin Netanyahu switches from self-defense to revenge mode- then must Germany raise its voice.
It was October 2023, shortly after the terrible Hamas robbery, the blood in the kibbutzim residential rooms was hardly dried, when I met a retired man in Tel Aviv who hid his sunken eyes behind a Ray-Ban sunglasses. Dan Chalutz was the chief of staff of the Israeli army and in 2005 was responsible for the deduction from Gaza after decades of crew. Now Israel went back to war. For understandable reasons.
“We will continue. No matter how long it takes,” said Chalutz at the time.
“Even if thousands of innocent civilians have to die?” I asked him.
“Who says they are innocent?” He replied. “Don’t judge us! Not now!”
Today, one and a half years later, Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lets himself in the BBC Quote with the words: Meanwhile, Netanyahus right -wing radical finance minister Bezalel Smotrich is still demanding.
The Holocaust-surviving Margot Friedländer has given the Germans to a certain extent to their 103-year life: “Be human.” Recently, her voice has been silent forever. The idea that the last contemporary witnesses of these dark years will soon have gone from us.
No child deserves to starve just because it was not born in Haifa, but in Rafah. No mother deserves to become a widow because terrorists are hiding in her neighborhood. No father deserves to have to push his family to move on every few weeks, on rickety donkey carts, if at all because Israel’s army starts the next major offensive. No one deserves to live like the Palestinians in Gaza.
Germany’s closest allies are now clearly pronouncing this. And act accordingly. The governments of threatening Netanyahu’s government with sanctions should not stop his military offensive.
The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stopped negotiations for a free trade deal with the government in Jerusalem. The EU is now also checking whether Israel’s warfare violates the basics of an existing association agreement. An overwhelming majority of the member states asked for this step. Germany was against it.
Even Donald Trump, who dreamed of a “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza with his friend Netanyahu at the beginning of the year, is now open to a distance, criticizes his strategy and no longer aligns his Middle East policy according to the Israeli compass. He negotiated with the Iranians, Deal with the Saudis, ended the US war against the Huthis in Yemen.
And in their own country, too, people resist their premier, from whom you might not expect this: tens of thousands of veterans, reservists and high -ranking military publicly speak against Netanyahus aimless war strikes and the planned crew of the Gaza Strip. For a long time, the largest forum for the hostage -member of the hostage demands a diplomatic, no military solution to free their relatives from the violence of the Islamists.
While Steinmeier celebrates, bombs fall on a hospital
Only the Federal Government states steadfastly on its coming-wool-wool doctrine, packs her criticism with grinds in nice appeals. that the Israeli government is aware of its commitment to the civilian population in Gaza. And what does Netanyahu do?
When President Steinmeier founded festively in Jerusalem last week. According to military information, the blow served the current Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. It is still unknown whether he is dead or not.
However, according to the Health Ministry led by Hamas, 28 people died in the clinic attack, dozens were injured, including a journalist who worked for the BBC. Beyond the border, Steinmeier was a speech with the words: “Germany is at your side. Always.”
It is the basic dilemma of our handling of the Middle East conflict: to think that you have to choose one side that you can only call either “State Räson” or “From the River to the Sea”. As if this war were a football derby. No, coexist the Israeli trauma and the Palestinian suffering. Yes, Germany always has to stand by the Jews. But the support for this Israeli government must not be unconditional.
This means that when Netanyahu is sought by the International Criminal Court by warrant, then there must – – – – not a visit to Germany from the premier.
If this Israeli government does not blame, then Germany must also seriously think about sanctions, such as against radical settlers and its advocates in the cabinet. And about stopping the arms deliveries.
And if Berlin is serious as a self-proclaimed advocate of a two-state solution, then the recognition of Palestina as a state of its own must no longer be taboo.
A message comes from Gaza: “I survived the bombing”
But surveys are comfortable, anonymous, non -binding. We all have to speak more openly and freely from the strangle of the collective debt about the Israeli wrong in Gaza without getting into the choir of those who question Israel’s right to exist on German roads or call up to boycotts as recently with the Eurovision Song Contest.
Because Benjamin Netanyahu is still sensitive to pressure, as he demonstrated in an exposing way this week. The fact that he now loosens the blockade of Gazas and again leaves an absolute minimum of relief goods across the limits is not for humanity, but – literally: “To secure the support of our good friends.” Above all, it is also up to us to dissolve Netanyahu from his wrong way.
You still read? Good. I want to tell you at the end of Mohammed Aiash.
Mohammed has seven children and lives in Nordgaza. He was a scholarship holder at the University of Stuttgart, at the Institute for Settlement Heavy. In autumn 2023 he traveled to Gaza for a home visit. Since then he has been caught there in the war. We are in contact via WhatsApp.
When I work on the last lines for this text in the evening, Mohammed sends me photos. They show the view from his half -destroyed apartment in Jabalia. Dust clouds pull over the debris of the building next door. He later sends this short video afterwards.
He writes: “I just survived the bombing of the neighboring house.” Nothing else. No emojis. No lament. Perfect apathy. According to Palestinian information, 84 people died this Wednesday. A normal day in Gaza.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
