That’s a personal statement, not an official one. And not even of the foreign minister or chancellor, but of the one for economy and climate change.
The official position of Germany is that statements done by Ben-Gvir etc. regarding “depopulating Gaza” are unacceptable, which shouldn’t be too surprising that’s been the German position regarding Israeli settlements etc. for aeons. Say what you want about our foreign policy but it’s darn consistent.
Regarding the state calling what Israel is doing genocide: In my estimation, they’re waiting for the ICJ judgement as it’s a juridical, not political, matter. What is political is Germany being the good cop in regards to Israel, someone else needs to be the bad cop, South Africa is perfectly willing to do that, so what exactly are you complaining about.
Den nun vor dem Internationalen Gerichtshof gegen Israel erhobenen Vorwurf des Völkermords weist die Bundesregierung aber entschieden und ausdrücklich zurück. Dieser Vorwurf entbehrt jeder Grundlage.
Translation:
The German government firmly and explicitly rejects the allegation of genocide, brought before the ICJ against Israel. This allegation is completely baseless.
Also:
Die Bundesregierung intendiert, in der Hauptverhandlung als Drittpartei zu intervenieren.
The German federal government intends to intervene during the main trial as a third party.
So, the official line is the same as what Habeck said in the clip. They’re also not waiting for a judgement, but supporting Israel directly before the court.
There’s a lot more in that statement if you know how to read diplomatic statements. They’re most of all interested in opposing political instrumentation while simultaneously acknowledging that different states have different evaluations [as to the legal situation] but they’re intervening on behalf of Israel [to oppose political instrumentalisation]. They’re saying that they reject the accusations, but not that they’re false, only that they’re baseless. Which is par for the course for defence attorneys, they always say that: “Prosecution, you don’t have evidence and your line of argument doesn’t make sense, no I don’t care where my client was Sunday 12:30pm”.
And truth be told if you hope that the ICJ will flat-out say that Israel is genocidal, no that won’t happen. Not because they’re partisan, but because the legal situation doesn’t allow it, it is not clear enough of a case. Best we’ll get is the court ruling that Israel shall put certain measures into place: Insist that the humanitarian aid Israel is giving is not close to enough to be, by itself, an argument against genocide, do more, your army is undisciplined AF, make sure that they actually follow the orders you give them.
The alternative to that kind of judgement would be saying “Israel is deliberately putting into place fig-leaf measures to evade prosecution” which is even harder to prove that genocide itself. You might’ve noticed that South Africa didn’t go for that line of reasoning, it’d indeed be a hail mary.
But if the ICJ says that Israel is genocidal, Germany will follow.
And truth be told if you hope that the ICJ will flat-out say that Israel is genocidal, no that won’t happen. Not because they’re partisan, but because the legal situation doesn’t allow it, it is not clear enough of a case.
This case is so 100% crystal clear, you’d have to deliberately twist your brain into a pretzel to believe otherwise. And if you think the judges will not be pressured by the governments that sent them, your pretzel brain probably went soggy. Try putting it in the toaster for a minute.
Is it clear that Israel is killing a fuckton of people? Yes. Could that end with the complete eradication of Palestinians from Gaza? Also yes.
And if you ask me that’s enough to call something a genocide. But my personal definition of the crime differs from that of the ICJ: In my mind, negligent genocide is genocide, while before the ICJ, you have to prove wilful intent, not mere negligence. And even if every Palestinian in Gaza gets killed and afterwards Israel sobers up, all Kahanites somehow emigrate to Mars or something and only mortally remorseful Labour Zionists are left – they’d still argue self-defence excess, not intent, as it was the Hamas attacks which whipped the country into that kind of frenzy. Because yes the Kahanites are out for genocide, but that’s not by far the majority of the Israeli population. That’d be even more wrong than claiming that Christo-Fascist Evangelicals are a majority in the US.
Attempting complete eradication is not necessary under UN definition, and in Srebrenica, 8000 people, far from all Bosnians, and not even the majority of people in Srebrenica, were killed, and that’s still an official court-approved genocide. The convention says “in whole or in part”, after all.
This is not negligence. This is obviously willful intent. They’re starving two million people. They know what the result of that is. They repeatedly bomb civilians. And they know they’re killing civilians. They know they’re not bombing military targets. They do this over and over. Repeatedly doing genocidal acts implies genocidal intent, you don’t have to go off of rhetoric.
The government of Israel are not liberal Zionists, so I don’t know why you bring that up even. It’s not genocide because not everyone in Israel wants genocide, just the far-right and the far-right government? What argument is that? That’s pretzel-brain speaking.
Also, most Israelis know what’s going on. Anyone who still supports this now after what has been going for over three months, while arguing self-defense, is either lying or completely delusional. Maybe they don’t like to think of themselves as genocidal maniacs, but they’re still supporting genocide and coming up with excuses why it’s okay this time. Liberal Zionists that don’t want this to stop immediately are still complicit. And again, that’s irrelevant when the far-right is in power. That’s still Israel, as a state, doing this and guilty of genocide.
And here’s Habeck pretending that Israel isn’t committing a genocide. German regime is showing its true colors for all the world to see.
That’s a personal statement, not an official one. And not even of the foreign minister or chancellor, but of the one for economy and climate change.
The official position of Germany is that statements done by Ben-Gvir etc. regarding “depopulating Gaza” are unacceptable, which shouldn’t be too surprising that’s been the German position regarding Israeli settlements etc. for aeons. Say what you want about our foreign policy but it’s darn consistent.
Regarding the state calling what Israel is doing genocide: In my estimation, they’re waiting for the ICJ judgement as it’s a juridical, not political, matter. What is political is Germany being the good cop in regards to Israel, someone else needs to be the bad cop, South Africa is perfectly willing to do that, so what exactly are you complaining about.
Official Statement by Germany:
Translation:
Also:
So, the official line is the same as what Habeck said in the clip. They’re also not waiting for a judgement, but supporting Israel directly before the court.
There’s a lot more in that statement if you know how to read diplomatic statements. They’re most of all interested in opposing political instrumentation while simultaneously acknowledging that different states have different evaluations [as to the legal situation] but they’re intervening on behalf of Israel [to oppose political instrumentalisation]. They’re saying that they reject the accusations, but not that they’re false, only that they’re baseless. Which is par for the course for defence attorneys, they always say that: “Prosecution, you don’t have evidence and your line of argument doesn’t make sense, no I don’t care where my client was Sunday 12:30pm”.
And truth be told if you hope that the ICJ will flat-out say that Israel is genocidal, no that won’t happen. Not because they’re partisan, but because the legal situation doesn’t allow it, it is not clear enough of a case. Best we’ll get is the court ruling that Israel shall put certain measures into place: Insist that the humanitarian aid Israel is giving is not close to enough to be, by itself, an argument against genocide, do more, your army is undisciplined AF, make sure that they actually follow the orders you give them.
The alternative to that kind of judgement would be saying “Israel is deliberately putting into place fig-leaf measures to evade prosecution” which is even harder to prove that genocide itself. You might’ve noticed that South Africa didn’t go for that line of reasoning, it’d indeed be a hail mary.
But if the ICJ says that Israel is genocidal, Germany will follow.
This case is so 100% crystal clear, you’d have to deliberately twist your brain into a pretzel to believe otherwise. And if you think the judges will not be pressured by the governments that sent them, your pretzel brain probably went soggy. Try putting it in the toaster for a minute.
Is it clear that Israel is killing a fuckton of people? Yes. Could that end with the complete eradication of Palestinians from Gaza? Also yes.
And if you ask me that’s enough to call something a genocide. But my personal definition of the crime differs from that of the ICJ: In my mind, negligent genocide is genocide, while before the ICJ, you have to prove wilful intent, not mere negligence. And even if every Palestinian in Gaza gets killed and afterwards Israel sobers up, all Kahanites somehow emigrate to Mars or something and only mortally remorseful Labour Zionists are left – they’d still argue self-defence excess, not intent, as it was the Hamas attacks which whipped the country into that kind of frenzy. Because yes the Kahanites are out for genocide, but that’s not by far the majority of the Israeli population. That’d be even more wrong than claiming that Christo-Fascist Evangelicals are a majority in the US.
Attempting complete eradication is not necessary under UN definition, and in Srebrenica, 8000 people, far from all Bosnians, and not even the majority of people in Srebrenica, were killed, and that’s still an official court-approved genocide. The convention says “in whole or in part”, after all.
This is not negligence. This is obviously willful intent. They’re starving two million people. They know what the result of that is. They repeatedly bomb civilians. And they know they’re killing civilians. They know they’re not bombing military targets. They do this over and over. Repeatedly doing genocidal acts implies genocidal intent, you don’t have to go off of rhetoric.
The government of Israel are not liberal Zionists, so I don’t know why you bring that up even. It’s not genocide because not everyone in Israel wants genocide, just the far-right and the far-right government? What argument is that? That’s pretzel-brain speaking.
Also, most Israelis know what’s going on. Anyone who still supports this now after what has been going for over three months, while arguing self-defense, is either lying or completely delusional. Maybe they don’t like to think of themselves as genocidal maniacs, but they’re still supporting genocide and coming up with excuses why it’s okay this time. Liberal Zionists that don’t want this to stop immediately are still complicit. And again, that’s irrelevant when the far-right is in power. That’s still Israel, as a state, doing this and guilty of genocide.
This brings a very interesting perspective to the recent arrest of members of US Nazi band Hammerskins in Germany.