Hamid Khoshayand – Expert on Regional Issues

At least until 1967, the German government played a significant and very effective role in establishing the industrial infrastructure of the Zionist regime. In a 1966 interview on German television, the then-German Chancellor, Adon Adair, explained the reason for and necessity of Germany’s economic and trade agreements with the Zionist regime: “To return to the international community, we must compensate for the suffering we have caused the Jews so that the path for Germany’s return to the civilized world can be paved!”

In fact, for the German politicians and political elites of the time, helping the Zionist regime was the only way for Germany to be accepted by the international community and the Western world. A discourse that had dominated German foreign policy towards the Zionist regime in the past and that, decades after those events, has still cast its shadow over German foreign policy, so that the German government’s extensive dealings with the Zionist regime and the country’s military, economic, and other aid to Tel Aviv, even during the Gaza War, can be analyzed within this framework.

Daniel Maroki, a writer, researcher, and professor at a German university, in a book published in 2020 titled “Innocence? Israel and Germany’s National Interests,” has a sentence that clearly reveals the dimensions, nature, and causes and reasons for Germany’s close relations, even at the cost of shedding the blood of tens of thousands of Palestinians, especially women and children, in Gaza: “Closeness to Israel is an easy way out of the past!” Former German Chancellor Merkel had also emphasized in her speeches in previous years: “Israel’s security is a necessity of Germany’s national interests.” This idea is still one of the main topics of German foreign policy today.

Currently, Germany is the Zionist regime’s largest trading partner among European countries and the regime’s “second trading partner” in the world after the United States. It is also the “largest” supporter of the Israeli regime in the Gaza war. The United States, with 69 percent, and Germany, with 30 percent, are the two largest suppliers of weapons and ammunition to the Zionist regime.

Since 2003, the German government has continuously and without restrictions issued more than 4,500 licenses for arms exports to the Zionist regime, with a total value of around 4 billion euros. The total value of approved arms exports to the Zionist regime in the second half of 2023, and specifically after the start of the regime’s invasion of Gaza, was ten times higher than in 2022, which is more than the total number of arms sent by Berlin to Tel Aviv in the past twenty years.

Despite domestic and international criticism of Germany regarding arms exports to the Zionist regime, the country’s government has approved the export of a significant volume of arms worth more than 30 million euros to the Zionist regime in the past few weeks.

The “open” role the German government plays in supplying the Zionist regime with military weapons, regardless of domestic and international regulations, has further “tarnished” the country’s image and reputation in the world.

Germany’s support for the Zionist regime in the Gaza war comes at a time when a significant portion of the country’s public opinion, elites, university professors, and students are opposed to their government’s complicity in the crimes of the Zionist regime. Over the past year, the German people have repeatedly demonstrated in protest of their government’s policies of support for the Zionist regime, which in some cases have escalated into violence and confrontations between the public and the police.

According to a new survey conducted by the Forsa Institute, more than 60 percent of Germans are opposed to continuing to send weapons to Tel Aviv.

The fact that the German people are rejoicing in the streets on the night of Iran’s missile operation against the Zionist regime reveals important facts about the “underlying realities” of German society that the government cannot ignore or overlook in making foreign policy decisions and “international calculations.” This is a “serious alarm bell” for the German government, which is the second largest supplier of weapons to the Zionist regime. Still, its citizens are expressing joy and satisfaction in response to Iran’s missile operations against this regime.

Furthermore, in a situation where public opinion in the world, including Europe, is unprecedentedly against the Zionist regime and its crimes in Gaza, and within German society, the volume of criticism and protests is increasing every day, continuing to export weapons to the Zionist regime and support for Tel Aviv, in addition to the domestic “consequences” for German sovereignty, will also expose the political, economic and national security interests of this country to serious consequences in the future.

In any case, according to the provisions of international law, UN resolutions, the 1948 Juscid Convention, and the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, transferring weapons to the Zionist regime means “participation” in the war crimes and genocide of this regime in Gaza.

Therefore, based on the aforementioned conventions and regulations, it is possible to file a lawsuit against the German government on charges of “complicity” in committing crimes against humanity. This country can be prosecuted and tried in the International Court of Justice for its actions in violation of international law and participation in the massacre of the people of Gaza.