Berlin’s backing for Israel in the current context has irrevocably ruined Germany’s international standing.
At the same time, as a result of Germany’s neoliberal restructuring, processes of de-democratisation have been ongoing for years.
The deliberate erosion of democracy has paved the way not only for the selective application of international law, but also for the restriction of fundamental rights within Germany itself.
The German population is firmly against their country’s participation in the extermination of the Palestinian people. In a recent poll, 73 percent said they had a negative view of Israel, while 80 percent have rejected further weapons exports to Israel. Despite this, German arms export licenses to Israel have surged, enabling the state to continue committing war crimes.
While the German government’s blatant disregard for the will of its own people already points to a process of de-democratisation, this is exacerbated by domestic restrictions on fundamental rights, including freedom of assembly, freedom of opinion and speech, and academic freedom, alongside violations of due process - all in the service of the Zionist slaughterers.
You know better than me, but surely this is not a serial issue, where one part must be dealt with before the other? Saying we can’t stop a genocide until we have taken care of prior business seems absurd to me from any party.
Reparations and hard sanctions do not work well together.
For example;
Reparations: we will fund your hospitals and universities, we will give you preferential access to our services and goods.
Sanctions: we will no longer offer you potential genocide supplies, military training or false-narrative complicity until you return all stolen land, prosecute settlers, begin reparations in Palestine, and define your fucking borders.
If that would work, then Hamas would have never done the October 7th attacks. As that is pretty close to what Germany did in the Gaza strip.
Even with weapon deliveries to Israel. Germany did stop those in late 2023 nearly fully silently, when the Gaza war became pretty bad and only restarted when the ceasefire was signed. There are also things like Germany being the single largest donor to the UNRWA to feed the people in Gaza. There are also EU sanctions against Israeli settlers and the like, which Germany does support.