Green Party politicians in New Zealand made some controversial statements during protests in favour of Palestine recently. To balance this, I thought I’d point to another speech of a Green Party politician. The Vice-Chancellor of Germany and Green Party co-leader Robert Habeck recently gave a speech on this issue, which takes a different approach:
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It was the generation of my grandparents that wanted to exterminate Jewish life in Germany and Europe. After the Holocaust, the founding of Israel was the promise of protection to the Jews — and Germany is compelled to help ensure that this promise can be fulfilled. This is a historical foundation of our republic.
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A Jewish friend told me about his fear, his sheer despair, his feeling of loneliness. The Jewish communities warn their members to avoid certain places — for their own safety. And this is the reality here today, in Germany, almost 80 years after the Holocaust.
Antisemitism is being seen at demonstrations, in statements, in attacks on Jewish shops, in threats. While large waves of solidarity are shown when there are racist attacks for example, solidarity quickly becomes fragile when it comes to Israel. People say that the context is complex. But contextualization must not lead to relativization.
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The scale of the Islamist demonstrations in Berlin and other cities in Germany is unacceptable and needs a tough political response. This is also needed from the Muslim associations.
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Islamist antisemitism, however, should not blind us to the fact that we also have entrenched antisemitism in Germany. The only difference is that the right-wing extremists are currently holding back, for purely tactical reasons, in order to be able to agitate against Muslims.
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But I am also concerned about the antisemitism in parts of the political left, and sadly among young activists as well. Anti-colonialism must not lead to antisemitism. In this respect this part of the political left should review its arguments and distrust the big resistance narrative.
The “both sides” argument is misleading here. Hamas is a murderous terrorist group fighting for the annihilation of the state of Israel and the death of all Jews.
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Yes, life in Gaza is life in poverty without prospects for the future. Yes, the settler movement in the West Bank is fomenting discord and robs Palestinians of hope and rights and, increasingly, lives. And the suffering of the civilian population now at war is a fact, a terrible fact. Every dead child is one dead child too many.
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Systematic violence against Jews, however, can still not be legitimized by this. Antisemitism cannot be justified by this.
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And this brings me to the last point: the attack on Israel took place in a phase of rapprochement between several Muslim states and Israel.
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But peaceful coexistence of Israel and its neighbours, of Jews and Muslims, and the prospect of a two-state solution — are not what Hamas and its supporters, especially the Iranian government, want. They want to destroy it. Those who have not given up hope for peace in the region, those who believe in the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own and a real perspective — as we do — must now differentiate in these difficult weeks. And differentiating means to acknowledge that the murderous acts of Hamas are intended to prevent peace.
Hamas does not want reconciliation with Israel, but the extermination of Israel. And this is why it is pivotal to make it clear that Israel’s right to exist must not be relativized. Israel’s security is our obligation. Germany knows this.