Germany withdraws legal backing for Israel in ICJ genocide case – Middle East Monitor
www.middleeastmonitor.com

Germany has stepped back from its earlier pledge to support Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Gaza genocide case, in a significant shift from its position when South Africa first brought proceedings in 2023.

A German foreign ministry spokesperson said this week that Berlin will not intervene on Israel’s behalf in the case at The Hague, despite having announced in January 2024 that it would support Israel and rejecting South Africa’s allegations as unfounded.

The move marks a notable change in Germany’s public position. When South Africa filed its case accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention through its military assault on Gaza, Berlin was among the first Western governments to rally behind Israel, arguing that the accusation of genocide had “no basis”.

    • qevlarr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 hours ago

      Putting it a bit strong, but Germany is quite conflicted. Anything antisemitic is understandably toxic, and Israel supporters know how to exploit that to make ordinary Germans support Israel no matter what. It’s not that they want Israel to do these things, more like socially unacceptable to even contemplate Israel could be wrong, ever

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      51·
      12 hours ago

      Haven’t they more or less been brought up with the knowledge that they may never say anything bad about Jewish people, otherwise they’re nazis?

      It’s going to take something monumental on Israels part to change that opinion.

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        313·
        12 hours ago

        Germans don’t care about Jewish people nor the Holocaust. They just love committing genocide. A literal Nazi party (AfD which are also Zionists) is on track to win their elections

        • boomzilla@programming.devEnglish
          71·
          10 hours ago

          That’s a blatant overgeneralisation. The biggest mass protests in recent decades were against the AfD. Especially after their secret Wannsee Conference 2.0 in November 2023 (which sadly was ruled against the investigative collective Correctiv to be libel in favour of the AfD by a court 2 days ago), but also in the recent 2 years after multiple landslide wins of them in elections.

          https://apnews.com/article/germany-far-right-democracy-protests-afd-nazis-2dce0ea7ed40fccd3f0ec1c46edcfd42

          https://brusselssignal.eu/2026/03/correctivs-expulsion-masterplan-claims-at-afd-potsdam-meeting-false-berlin-court-says/

          Yes, a concerningly huge amount of people fall for the propaganda of their charismatic mouthpieces like Alice Weidel, overwhelmingly in the east Germany ex-GDR federal states where neonazism is brooding since the 90s and the youth was successfully indoctrinated by their parents generations and the political education regarding our dark past was way weaker then in the West. Couple that with a perceived (and often actual) economical disadvantage of east Germany and the AfD’s refined propaganda on TikTok and Facebook and you got this perfect storm.

          Sadly in south Germany they got more strong over the years too, especially during Corona where the strategy was to fabricate a Corona and vaccination dictatorship, which fell on fertile ground with the boomers who more and more get duped by generative AI and tailored algorithms and CDU figureheads (who a lot of the boomers trust, because of their alleged economic competence), pondering a possible cooperation with the AfD.

          But overall I think (hope) for many folks here the genocide in Gaza was an eye opener and they did a bit of research about Israel’s past and are not not in favour unconditional support anymore. Guys like Smotrich or Ben-Gvir, the settler violence, the Nakba etc. aren’t unknowns anymore. And we can very well distinguish between Jewish people and Zionism. The ones who seem to not be able to do that are some politicians and organisations who allege protesters of antisemitism and supress those violently. Just like in the UK and the US.