Schulz (left) said that at this moment there is only one place for Germany: the place next to Israel (Reuters)

The “winds of change” heralded by the German band “Scorpion” before the fall of the Berlin Wall in the fall of 1989, at the height of the Velvet Revolutions in the Eastern bloc, succeeded in putting Germany later on the path to unity and in the circle of international appreciation as it became a pivotal country in building... International peace and security.

But the winds of change that reflected hope at the end of the Cold War at that time did not include the long conflict in the Middle East, and unified Germany failed to push towards reaching a fair and tangible agreement on the ground for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Then came the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, causing a deep rift in Germany's relations with the Arab world in an unprecedented way. This matter is considered rare in the history of German diplomacy since the unification and the government of the late Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Berlin has maintained good relations with the Arab world, and has stood by the call to meet the demands of the Palestinians to establish their state and restore their occupied lands, despite its sense of historical responsibility towards Israel.

Why did this equation fail in the war on the Gaza Strip with the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz?

Why is Germany completely biased towards Israel?

Does this mean that it is ready to risk its relations with the Arab world?

The German Chancellor during his visit to Israel (Reuters)

Commitment hides conflict

In defining the political role of the German state, specifically related to relations in the Middle East, the German Information Center says that Germany supports, with its partners, the search for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is also working to resolve conflicts in Syria, Libya and Yemen, explaining that dialogue is the most important means of finding sustainable solutions.

However, this definition entails a conflict at the official level and at the level of the directed definition when the center indicates at the same time that Germany is “keen to adhere to the texts of balanced resolutions that are in the interest of permanent peace in the Middle East, and opposes the unfair treatment of Israel in the United Nations.”

The Center also stresses that the German government adopts basic principles in the political evaluation of draft resolutions, mainly “the historical responsibility for the Jewish and democratic State of Israel and its right to exist, as well as the firm conviction that only the two-state solution based on negotiation can guarantee lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.” ".

This definition, at least in its first half, finds a strong echo in the behavior of German diplomacy since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on October 12, “At this moment there is only one place for Germany: the place next to Israel.” This position was also expressed by the Bundestag (German Parliament).

German writer and researcher specializing in Middle East and North African affairs, Kirsten Kneipp, explains that these positions cannot be separated from German history during World War II, “when the Nazi regime killed millions of Jews.”

He added, in his speech to Al Jazeera Net, that Germany feels that it has a historical debt and duty to protect Israel, and this commitment is seen as more than just a political goal. Rather, it is considered that Israel’s security and existence are the reason for the existence of the state in Germany, and therefore Israel’s security and existence represent... Together the core of German interests.

Stop the war

During the visit of German Foreign Minister and Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock on January 8, 2024, to Israel, she called for providing more possibilities to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and for the Israeli army to act more cautiously in its attack.

However, despite this, she was not free from criticism within her party from feminist leaders before the visit regarding her reluctance to explicitly demand an end to the bombing of Gaza at a time when the number of casualties among Palestinian women and children is increasing.

Although the German Foreign Ministry publicly recalled during that visit the importance of adhering to the two-state solution proposal to establish lasting peace in the region, in practice, German diplomacy does not exert real pressure on Israel to push towards achieving this proposal.

This increases the Arabs' disappointment about the German role, which was reflected in rare protests in front of a number of German embassy headquarters in the Arab region, where protesters painted the Nazi slogan on the walls of the German Cultural Center in response to Berlin's position.

Big challenge

German researcher Kneipp admits that the situation in the Middle East poses a great challenge to the federal government, and that for the aforementioned reasons Germany stands firmly with Israel, but it also realizes that large parts of the Arab world take a different position, and that this could lead to political disputes with its Arab partners.

However, according to the researcher, it is inconceivable that the federal government would deviate from its basic position.

Kneipp believes that German diplomacy is likely to face more challenges in the region, and will have to explain the German position again and again, "which is not easy."

The researcher adds in his comment, "It seems to me that this is the only way to communicate and prevent the escalation of various situations. However, it also seems to me that the vast majority of Arab countries have no interest in jeopardizing good relations with a country like Germany because of the war between Israel and Hamas."

Strong presence

Germany already has an important presence in the Arab region. Over the decades after World War II, Germany succeeded in establishing strong relations with most countries in the Arab world.

Thousands of "guest workers" who were brought in between the 1960s and 1970s from Arab countries played a role in rebuilding West Germany's economy and transforming it into the locomotive of the European economy.

According to data from the German Statistical Office published by the "Deutschland" website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are approximately 800,000 immigrants in the country from Syria alone who do not hold German citizenship, in addition to about 800,000 from other Arab immigrants.

On the economic level, according to the German Information Center, Germany is linked to strong economic exchange with the Arab world, as Germany is one of the most important trading partners for many Arab countries, and many German companies invest in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf region.

For example, the trade balance between the two sides doubled from approximately 22 billion euros in 2002 to about 50 billion euros in 2016.

On the cultural level, Cairo includes the oldest German institute abroad in the world (established in 1873), supported by the German Cultural Center, which has branches around the world, the Goethe Institute for learning the German language and dialogue between cultures, across 10 headquarters in the Arab world.

The German Agency for International Cooperation is linked to broad cooperation, development and reconstruction programs in the Arab region, including the Palestinian areas, but these programs and this broad cooperation are about to be at the test of the serious crisis and humanitarian catastrophe in the devastated Gaza Strip.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were met with a crackdown by the German (French) police.

Successive shocks

Indications of this actually appeared when the German government canceled funding for a project to combat trafficking in women in Egypt, implemented by the “Egyptian Women’s Issues” Foundation, in response to the signing of the Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, lawyer Azza Soliman, of a statement calling for an end to the war on Gaza, a boycott of Israeli goods, and the severing of diplomatic relations with it. .

In Tunisia, public skirmishes emerged between German Ambassador Peter Bruegel and Tunisian government officials who, during a press conference on the occasion of the inauguration of a German-funded school, rejected the ambassador’s indication in a statement that “the Israelis are victims of Palestinian terrorism,” after which they left the conference.

Another indication appeared on the German side when the management of the Frankfurt International Book Fair, in its 2023 session, in conjunction with the war on the Gaza Strip, decided to cancel the delivery of the “Liberator Prize” awarded by the Litprom Foundation to writers and authors from countries of the South of the world, which was scheduled for the Palestinian writer residing in Berlin. Adeniya Shibli for her novel “A Secondary Detail”.

The fair’s director, Jurgen Bos, said at the time, in a press release published on the fair’s website, “The terrorist war on Israel contradicts all the values ​​of the Frankfurt Book Fair,” expressing at the same time the organizers’ desire to “make Jewish and Israeli voices particularly visible at the book fair.” ".

These and other indicators have deepened doubts about Germany's image in the Arab world, and the values ​​of humanity and freedom that the federal government is keen to remember in its diplomatic relations.

It is ironic that many of the statements of observers of the war on Gaza stated that what is being exposed to “the Gaza Strip has become more horribly similar to German cities in World War II during the destructive war led by the Allies to bring Germany to its knees,” as the head of the Jerusalem Center for Political Studies, Oraib Rantawi, says. In a press interview.

crackdown

But the wave of public discontent reached its peak with the German police’s violent crackdown on participants in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and the capital Berlin’s ban on raising Palestinian flags and keffiyehs in schools, with what was accompanied by a widespread hunting campaign by German official institutions, party representatives, and most media outlets for critical voices. Israel's behavior in the Gaza Strip.

The American newspaper "The Hill" said that the organized campaigns taking place in Germany against supporters of the Palestinians are unprecedented in the history of this country since World War II.

While German President Frank Steinmar called on the Arab communities to explicitly distance themselves from supporting the Hamas movement, the Christian Democratic Union Party went so far as to demand the issuance of a decision making support for Israel a condition for obtaining German citizenship.

These restrictions threaten to undermine the open-door policy that Germany envisaged for “humanitarian reasons” in receiving hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Syrian war.

Syrian researcher and lecturer residing in Germany, Hossam Al-Din Al-Darwish (Al-Jazeera)

Willingness to pay the price

Hussam al-Din al-Darwish, a Syrian researcher and academic residing in Germany and a lecturer in philosophy and Arab and Islamic thought, says that the image of Germany, as a people, state and government, which became bright for many with the official and popular adoption of the policy of welcoming refugees, has become more and more dull with the shift in governmental and right-wing discourses and policies towards refugees. .

Al-Darwish continues, in his comment to Al-Jazeera Net, that the matter is related to successive shocks in the Arab world and outside it regarding German policy, including its pursuit of peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation, its effort to criminalize the boycott movement against Israel, and its attempt before that to market its values ​​regarding homosexuality and raise its slogans in the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. .

Darwish adds in the conclusion of his observation that “Germany has not failed in its relationship with the Arab world, because that relationship is not a priority for it, and it focuses on supporting the Israeli occupying state in all circumstances and whatever the cost. It is clear that distorting its image in the Arab world is one of these costs.” Which the German government seems prepared to pay willingly.”

Source: Al Jazeera