Israeli academic criticizes Germany's unconditional support for Israel, calls for policy change

Israeli academic Neve Gordon, who signed an open letter in October urging the German government not to be complicit in Israel's crimes, said Germany's post-Holocaust guilt has led it to lose its moral direction.

Gordon, a professor of human rights law at Queen Mary University of London and vice president of the British Society for Middle East Studies, was among many intellectuals and scholars who signed the letter “to stop supporting the annihilation of Palestinians.”

The letter criticizes Germany for backing Israel's actions in Gaza, where the death toll has soared.

-Disregard for basic tenets of law

Gordon pointed out that international law has been completely violated in Gaza, where Israel has continued its attacks for over a year.

"There's a disregard for the basic tenets of the law, which call for the protection of civilians and civilian structures,” he said.

Noting that the world has witnessed Israel kill nearly 18,000 children and thousands of other civilians in the Gaza Strip, Gordon said Israel has also destroyed many schools, universities and hospitals and “used food as a weapon of war.”

-Israel's two biggest supporters

Gordon noted that the US and Germany are Israel's two biggest supporters in the international arena, but Germany's support for Israel contradicts the “Never Again” principle adopted after the Holocaust.

“The German government, which is dedicated or has said that it is dedicated to ensuring ‘Never again' post-World War Two, is actually in many ways supporting a government that is carrying out genocidal violence,” he said.

He pointed out that Germany continues this support by criminalizing those who criticize Israel, stressing that the German government needs to change its course.

“I think it needs to look at what is happening on the ground. It needs to look into its own legal requirements, which do not allow it to trade weapons with countries or entities that violate international humanitarian law, and it needs to stop its support of this genocidal violence and actually put pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and (embrace a) cease-fire.”

Gordon said the letter sent by academics and intellectuals to the German government serves as a "means of pressure" to change the government's course.

He expressed concern about the many policies of the German government that restrict support for Palestinians or pro-Palestinian activism, calling this "very worrying."

He also finds it "extremely ironic" that the German government has become the arbitrator of which Jews are anti-Semitic and which Jews are not anti-Semitic.

He criticized the German government's adoption of a definition of anti-Semitism that accuses anyone who strongly criticizes the Israeli government's policies as being anti-Semitic, calling it “wrongheaded and extremely problematic.”

-German government defends perpetrator regardless of their actions

Gordon said that Germany should stop supporting Israel, which is committing genocide in Gaza.

“I think that the German government has lost direction due to its guilt feelings of carrying out a horrendous genocide against the Jewish people in World War Two, whereby 6 million Jews were slaughtered by the German government.

“But instead of learning how to stop other genocides, the German government has taken on the lesson and has decided to defend Israel regardless of what Israel carries out. I think that is exactly the wrong kind of lesson that needs to be taken from World War Two. I think we need to look not at the identity of the perpetrator or the identity of the victim but at the nature of the act. When the nature of the act is genocidal, regardless of who the perpetrator is and who the victim is, we need to call out against it.

“We need to insistently work against it, and we need to introduce policies that do not allow it to happen.”

He also emphasized that the German government looks at the identity of the perpetrator and the identity of the victim but defends the perpetrator regardless of their actions.

“I think that is misguided,” he added.

-Intellectuals' call to German government ‘to stop supporting the annihilation of Palestinians'

In October, hundreds of German intellectuals urged their government “to stop supporting the annihilation of Palestinians.”

“For over one year, the German government has been actively participating in the killing and dehumanization of Palestinians by providing political, financial, military and legal support to Israel. Germany's complicity in Israel's atrocities must stop,” they said in the letter.

"We, the undersigned, demand the German government to stand unwaveringly on the side of justice and international law; to exert pressure on Israel to immediately end the killing, maiming and destruction of Palestinian life," they added.

The letter pointed out that Germany, as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and to the Rome Statute, has “a historical, ethical, legal and political obligation not to commit, aid and abet the atrocity crimes that these treaties proscribe.”