The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his Foreign Minister delivered their strongest criticism of Israel to date on Tuesday. A remarkable turnaround for Germany, which is known as a staunch ally. Concrete measures are still pending.
Germany, along with the United States, is one of Israel’s most loyal allies. But there seems to be a shift within the German government, now that the European Union is investigating cooperation with Israel and the United Kingdom, France, and Canada are also threatening “concrete measures.”
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was present on Tuesday at a forum organized by the German broadcaster WDR. There, he said that the massive air strikes on Gaza and the shortages of food and medicine have made the situation there “unbearable.”
At a press conference in Finland on Monday, Chancellor Merz said that the Israeli air strikes are “no longer explainable.” The attacks “no longer make any sense to me. How do they serve the purpose of fighting terror?” he said. At the same WDR forum on Monday, he also said that “causing so much suffering among the civilian population is no longer justifiable.”
It is not a complete break with the Israeli government, but it does show a change of tone towards the country, writes news agency Reuters. Since the Holocaust, Germany has carried a great sense of responsibility for Israel. After Merz won the elections in February, he still promised to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Germany, despite an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Coalition partner SDP calls for no more weapons to be supplied
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the state of Israel must not be used for the conflict and the war currently raging in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said on Tuesday. “We are now at a point where we need to think carefully about what steps we will take next.”
The minister did not directly mention concrete measures, but did say that where Germany “sees dangers of damage, we will of course intervene and not supply weapons that cause further damage.” Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether a next step by Germany could be to stop arms deliveries. Merz and Wadephul declined to answer questions from journalists about this.
Coalition partner SPD had previously called for arms exports to Israel to be stopped. According to the SPD, Germany otherwise risks complicity in war crimes.