New York, NY – On the day that the International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling allowing South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza to advance, Palestine solidarity activists held a rally outside the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations in New York, to condemn Germany’s motion in support of Israel at the ICJ and ongoing repression of Palestine solidarity protesters. Bridenthal, Stein, and Alshareef will also deliver a letter signed by 300 prominent Jews opposing Germany’s ICJ intervention to the German mission.
On January 12, Germany intervened on Israel’s behalf as a third party at the International Court of Justice, in opposition to South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide. The move was condemned by the government of Namibia, where Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century between 1904 and 1908, Accordintg to a statement of the Namibian presidency, “Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza.”
Germany’s intervention was also condemned by a letter signed by 300 Jewish rabbis, scholars, policy makers, filmmakers and activists. The letter opens, “We call on the governments of Germany, Austria and all European nations involved in the Nazi Holocaust to stand on the right side of history, to stand with South Africa in its courageous appeal to the highest court in the United Nations to stop Israel’s slaughter and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”
Germany’s support of Israel at the ICJ has been accompanied by a brutal and draconian crackdown on Palestine supporters, with bans and restrictions on Palestine solidarity protests and even arrests for wearing of the keffiyeh
Accorrding to Renee Steinhagen, “As the daughter to two German holocaust survivors and a Jewish German citizen I am shocked and dismayed that Germany is again supporting genocide, choosing complicity with the slaughter of over 25,000 in Gaza and renewing the restrictions on free expression that defined the Nazi era.”
As the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California opens hearings in Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden, a case charging the Biden administration with complicity in genocide, protesters will also condemn Biden’s role in abetting genocide.
© Erik McGregor – erikrivas@hotmail.com – 917-225-8963