Germany believes that Israel is only defending itself against Hamas atrocities
The German government rejects the accusation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population and warns against the “political instrumentalization” of the action. German spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement that the allegation “has no basis in fact” and stressed that Israel was only “defending itself” after the “inhuman” attacks committed by Hamas on October 7.
Hebestreit stressed that “in light of German history and the crimes against humanity of the Shoah, the German government is particularly committed to the [UN] Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 in the aftermath of the Holocaust,” and that it recognizes that there are divergent views in the international community on Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza. “However, the German government decisively and expressly rejects the charge of genocide brought against Israel before the International Court of Justice,” said the spokesman.
He also stated that Germany would intervene as a third party before the International Court, backed by an article that allows states to seek clarification on the use of a multilateral convention.
During the hearing in The Hague on Thursday, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck also denied the accusations of genocide: “Those who would commit or want to commit genocide, if they could, are Hamas. Their agenda is to end the State of Israel.”
Other European Union countries have not actively commented on the situation, seeking to express neutrality in relation to the conflict – calling for the protection of Gaza’s civilians and the provision of humanitarian aid, but also endorsing Israel’s right to self-defense.
Peter Stano, the European Commission’s foreign affairs spokesman, this week reaffirmed the bloc’s support for the International Commission of Justice, but did not endorse the genocide case against Israel. “With regard to this specific case, countries have the right to bring cases or legal actions. The European Union is not part of this process,” said Stano. “That’s not for us to comment on.”
Hungary was the only EU country besides Germany that explicitly condemned the lawsuit filed by South Africa to accuse Israel of genocide, through a statement by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Facebook, who said that “accusing a country that has suffered a terrorist attack of genocide is obviously nonsense”, and that “we believe that it is in the interest of the whole world that the current anti-terrorist operations are successfully concluded in order to prevent such a brutal terrorist attack from happening again anywhere in the world”.
Brazil officially supported South Africa’s complaint to the International Court against Israel, as did Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Morocco, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Maldives, Namibia, Jordan, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia. “Note that practically all the countries that supported this infamous accusation of genocide are not democratic, and have a serious record of human rights violations. It is regrettable to see Brazil joining them,” points out André Lajst, a political scientist specializing in the Middle East and CEO of StandWithUs Brasil.
Lajst points out that this is yet another false accusation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. “According to the definition of genocide adopted by the UN – formulated by a Jew to describe the horrors of the Holocaust – what constitutes such a crime is the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic or religious group,” explains the political scientist. “What Israel has done, however, is quite different from this. Evidence of this is the many measures to prevent civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip during the war against Hamas, such as the distribution of humanitarian aid and the issuing of warnings and guidelines for civilians to leave conflict zones before Israeli military action.”
“Brazil and the other countries that supported this action whose concepts are distorted should analyze the circumstances in a less biased way and understand that Israel is fighting to defend itself against a terrorist group that is holding its civilians hostage, just as any other country that has suffered a tragedy of this magnitude would do, and is not deliberately eliminating the Palestinian civilian population,” Lajst concludes.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***