2023-11-13 22:14:44
I’m currently in London and happy about it. On November 11th, Armistice Day was celebrated here, which ended the First World War. At the same time, hundreds of thousands demonstrated peacefully in the streets of London, demanding an end to the violence in Gaza. Muslims, Jews, Christians – everyone marched together for peace. That currently seems difficult to imagine in Germany.
In Great Britain, the public debate on the war in Israel and Gaza is broader, more nuanced and more critical than anything I know in Germany. There are fewer either/or, yes-but and yes-no. The atrocities committed by the radical Islamist Hamas in Israel are recognized as inhumanely cruel crimes. At the same time, the proportionality of the Israeli government’s response is being questioned: it has cut off Gaza from electricity, fuel and water. Thousands of people died as a result of the bombing of residential areas. Despite Israel’s right to self-defense, the question is legitimate: is this collective punishment and therefore a war crime?
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The German news media is skirting around this issue with pincers. This seems unnecessary because war crimes are clearly defined. They are never legitimated as “serious violations of the regulations of international humanitarian law”, not even as an act of self-defense. Their ban applies to all states – the USA and Russia, as well as Israel. At the same time, human rights apply to everyone – Jews and Palestinians. These points are important.
Brilliant journalistic achievements: rare in Germany
Indeed, according to United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk, both Hamas and Israel committed war crimes last month. That is, the “atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups on October 7th (…) were war crimes.” At the same time, “Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians (…) also constitutes a war crime, as does the unlawful forced evacuation of civilians.” The US broadcaster CNN reported this on November 9th. You have to look for this both/and debate in the German media.
Instead, direct quotes from politicians flood our headlines. “These days we are all Israelis,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock shortly after the Hamas attacks; “Hamas must be destroyed,” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck recently added. In this climate of war slogans there is hardly any real debate. Even rarer are the brilliant journalistic achievements that critically assess what is actually happening.
A few weeks ago, the broadcaster Al Jazeera reported an exception: the American Marc Lamont Hill interviewed the former Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon about possible war crimes by Israel. This interview was remarkable. Well researched, clear and fearless. Lamont doesn’t let up, keeps digging and gets answers that don’t fit into either/or categories.
We need more of that, including in Germany. Because we have a dark history of anti-Semitism that we must confront honestly. War crimes are also part of this story. Their ban was a result of the Second World War. It should guarantee that such horror will never happen again.
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