Germany Opposes Recognizing Palestinian State Now | Sweden Herald
Germany Opposes Recognizing Palestinian State Now | Sweden Herald
Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says the occasion is wrong to proclaim a sovereign Palestinian state, and that such a decision would send a "wro
Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says the occasion is wrong to proclaim a sovereign Palestinian state, and that such a decision would send a "wrong signal”.
Germany is not in a good place right now.
The conservative party let themselves be pulled along by far-right populist (AfD) talking points for so long, they now elected leaders who aren't much better. And they won the national election, narrowly averting the AfD getting into government.
Apparently the "let's try to win voters away from the nazis" strategy wasn't so good after all.
That, and Trumpism/Muskism looming everywhere.
We now have even stricter migrant policies, to the point that it's not just "conservative" anymore. As if the EU wasn't strict enough already, but sharing the burden just doesn't go down well with your average kneejerk voter.
Reports about far-right extremism are mounting all over Germany, not just in the East. Yet the government or justice department seem to dawdle finally taking steps against the clearly dangerous and unconstitutional AfD.
edit: and all that just makes it harder to finally take this step wrt Palestine. In addition to our historical burden there, which seems contrary considering what I just wrote.
The AfD was never going to end up in government from the last election. They would have to try a three way coalition with the Greens as well. However such a coalition sucks for everybody and can not really produce the necessary change. Even the current one is less the popular in both parties.
That is especially bad with Germany being in a bad place already. The economy has problems as the massive car industry has to transition to electric and those cars require fewer workers. The baby boomers are starting to retire, which helps keep unemplyoment low, but also means less cheap workers and higher social spending. Trumps tariff chaos is horrible for an export power house like Germany. Then the war in Ukraine is too close for comfort, so weapons have to be given to Ukraine, which costs a lot. At the same time no longer buying Russian fossil fuels drives up energy prices. The obvious solution of going green means massive new investment as well, which costs a lot and it takes time. All while infrastructure is crumbling due to the government not wanting to go into debt.
The Palastine situation just sucks badly. Antisemitism accusation are a given, when you attack Israel and they land especially hard in Germany, given German history. So you end up with a very confused foreign policy. Offically calling for full support of Israel, while abstaining in the UN. Politicans being very clear about wanting to sell weapons to Israel, while at the same time blocking anything, which explodes to be sold to Israel for over a year now. Similar with UNRWA, cutting off aid and then resuming it a few months later and restarting that. Basically Germany is talking the big talk about support for Israel, due to being afraid of being called antisemitic, while half assing actual support of Israel. The problem being that even half assed support is still really unpopular globally and people look mostly at what is said, rather then what is being done.
What a garbage article. They are giving a whole press conference with the visiting Israeli foreign minister and all we get posted here is from a swedish newpaper and contains three sentences. Three fucking sentences of ragebait - can we please post some more credible articles here?
can we please post some more credible articles here?
Anyone stopping you?
What a dumb thing to say.
He's saying stop posting trash, so stop posting trash bozo
In an instance of anti-Palestinian racism, Germany Denies Palestine's Right To Exist.
He actually criticized the construction of Israeli settlements and called for more help for Gaza, but you won't learn that when your news source contains of three sentences. And BTW: he didn't deny palestines right to exist. He wants to recognize Palestine after successful negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. You might want to start reading newspapers whose articles contain more than three sentences and maybe take back your racism accusation. It really is not helping
Not helping whom? Explain.
Because from where I'm sitting, German policy is very obviously uneven. It actively arms one side while suppressing support for the other side (to the point where it is reasonable to see it as systematic) and puts a priori roadblocks to investigating genocide allegations against it.
In light of these facts, the positive things you listed ring extremely performative. "Criticize" construction of settlements, without doing anything about it. "Calling for more help", without doing anything about it. Wants to recognize Palestine after some imaginary future negotiation, which the Israeli side has made functionally impossible, and has used as a pretext to deploy salami tactics, and all the while Germany doing nothing about it.
From where I'm sitting, I see Germany bending over backwards for Israel, and being only performatively acceptable for Palestine. And when other victims of past German crimes, like Namibia, are calling them out, I see absolutely no reason to cut Germany any kind of slack. I see German Rememberance culture being weaponized through the legislation and institutionalization of the shameful definition of the IHRA to attack pro-Palestinian voices and entrench Jewish supremacy in Israel-Palestine. I see German politics weaponize criticism of Israel as a way to externalize onto migrants its own antisemitism, as if antisemitism is a foreign pathogen imported by migrants. At the same time Germany has never elevated to the level of Staatsraison the protection of Romani people, also victims of the same Holocaust. Never made it its Staatsraison to protect Namibians, victims of the first German genocide. Why would I see any this as evidence of something other than racism?
Germany has implicated itself in Israeli apartheid and genocide. It arms a state that actively skirts ICJ orders in an ongoing Genocide trial. And it really didn't have to. Germany could have said "we want justice done and will wait to see what the court finds out". Germany could instead stand by the Israeli people with humanitarian aid, with open borders for those who choose to flee war, with sending doctors, social workers, civil defence supplies, while distancing itself from the war machine and the Israeli state crimes. There is a moral road that Germany could have taken, while still respecting its historical debts. But it did not. So I see ZERO reason to "help" Germany. I see every reason to castigate and to shame German hypocrisy.
To be absolutely clear: this attitude comes from a feeling of betrayal. I actually admire Germany and used to hold its Rememberance culture as a model for the world. I am infuriated at seeing these betrayals. If you read acidity here, yea, this is what a hurt friend sounds like.
Wouldn't that, by definition, be antisemitism? 🤔
No. Arabic is a semitic language, in the sense that German is an indoeuropean language, but in modern times, that's the extent of the similarity between the words and it that has nothing further to do with antisemitism as a word of its own. "Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish)."
See also the Wikipedia article on Semitic people:
Semitic people or Semites is a term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. The terminology is now largely unused outside the grouping "Semitic languages" in linguistics. [...] In archaeology, the term is sometimes used informally as "a kind of shorthand" for ancient Semitic-speaking peoples. The use of the term as a racial category is considered obsolete.
The occasion seems to always be wrong. At peace? Wrong signal, might lead to war. At war? Wrong signal, might hinder peace process. Ongoing talks? Wrong signal, pre-defining an outcome might anger one party or both. No ongoing talks? Wrong signal, no momentum for actual change right now. We always find an excuse. Fuck our political class.
The line for ages was that Germany would recoginze Palastine, if Israel does so. Obviously that is not going to happen.
Correct, but you have to mention Germany's particularly sensitive position here.
That's no excuse for recognizing Palestine of course - except that there's too many people who claim it's against recognizing the state of Israel and therefore against German law. Which is utter horse diarrhea.
After two years of Genocide, I have stopped giving a flying fuck for Germany's Staatsräson. They're taking their own internal contradictions out on a people that had nothing to do with the Holocaust. They are externalizing their own guilt on to someone else's sovereignty and national liberation. Go cry in a corner if you will but don't stand in the way of Palestinians asserting their inalienable rights and definitely don't arm the perpetrators of genocide against them.
If you want to atone to Israelis, open your borders to any of them that want out of the war, send them humanitarian aid, send them social workers and nurses and doctors. You can be there for Israeli people without aiding and abetting Israeli crimes.
I see that merz's washington visit was productive
Maybe we should oppose recognising the German state till the government recognises the Palestinian state.