Scholz standing on wrong side of history on Gaza war

The statement by the German leader is in sharp contrast to the global demand for a ceasefire.

Through such an approach, Germany is setting itself against all countries, except the U.S. and Britain and a few others. Most importantly, Scholze is standing against the public opinion in the world.

The people around the world had formulated a high opinion of Germany following the policies that the country followed after the Second World War. It received hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the Syrian war. But Germany has disappointed the people whenever it comes to Israel’s behavior in Palestine. Germany is unreasonably biased in favor of Israel, no matter whether the Social Democrats or Christian Democrats are in power.

The war crimes being committed against the Gazans are so grave that have astonished the world. Regarding the war on Gaza, the German leadership is standing against human rights and the demands of public opinion.

Aren’t Scholz and his team of advisors seeing protests against Israel’s war crimes in Gaza? If Tel Aviv has waged war against Hamas for the October 7 attacks, why is it collectively punishing 2.3 million Gazans by cutting off food, water, medicine, and fuel to them?

What Israel has started against Gaza is not a war. It is a clear instance of genocide, war crime, and crime against humanity.

Attacking hospitals and ambulances, fleeing people, and bombarding civilians who take shelter in schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and UN offices will remain as a stain on the forehead of humanity like the Srebrenica massacre.

Israel has launched a mad war on the besieged Gaza Strip otherwise so many innocent lives would not have been lost. So far about 12,000 people, mostly children and women, have been killed. Until this date, Israel has killed nearly 10 people for every person killed in the October 7 attack by Hamas. The bombardments are so cruel and thoughtless that even 101 UN staff workers have also been killed.

Attack on hospitals is the height of madness. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Al-Shifa Hospital, which is also tackling power cuts and a lack of fuel, is “nearly a cemetery”. According to the BBC, the hospital’s manager said the health center was under a “blockade”, and that dogs had started eating corpses.

It is extremely expected that the German chancellor first think about such tragedies before opposing an end to the war.

Scholz has appeared more Catholic than pope in Israel’s war on Gaza. The absolute majority of people with different religious tendencies – Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists – are loudly crying out for a quick end to the war. In addition to the street protests, the posts on social media outlets are indications that the people are demanding an immediate end to this human tragedy.

In a post on X, Jewish Voices for Peace said, “Israeli government officials express their genocidal intentions loud and clear.” The anti-Zionist organization based in the United States also said, “Anything but a call for a ceasefire is an endorsement of this violence.”

They also said, “You can shut our organizations down, but cannot stop our hearts from beating for liberation, humanity, the freedom of Palestine.”

Farhang Jahanpour, a former Oxford University professor and a senior Fulbright Research Scholar at Harvard, wrote on X that “the Israelis are totally out of control and feel complete impunity due to US’s blind support for all their atrocities. With such rude and nonsensical attacks on the UN & its organisations what is Israel doing there. It should be kicked out of the UN & sent to ICJ in the Hague.”

On Monday, Amnesty International also said as a “catastrophe” is unfolding in Gaza, the EU countries “must” call for an immediate cease-fire.

In his Sunday remarks, the German chancellor said, “That (ceasefire) would mean ultimately that Israel leaves Hamas the possibility of recovering and obtaining new missiles.”

Scholz is mistaken if he is really worried that Hamas will regroup if the war stops. First, it is rather impossible to fully eliminate a rebel or militant group. Even if Hamas is annihilated other groups with other names will come into existence. All the conditions are ripe for the emergence of militant groups among Palestinians. The way Israel treats Palestinians naturally germinates rebellion and insurgency.

The statements by UN Secretary General António Guterres on October 24 speak volumes that can also serve as a torch for ending this bleeding wound. Guterres said, “The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”  He also the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

Palestinians are only seeing a darker future with no light at the end of the tunnel.

One should not doubt that even some of these children who are now seeing these horrific scenes would not wish to take revenge against Israel when they reach the age of puberty. These scenes will remain in their minds for life.

When a child sees family members – brothers, sisters, mother or father – being killed in Israeli bombardments he may decide to take vengeance one day. It is not difficult to understand these things. They are before our eyes. These young persons who have taken arms against Israel were born decades after Israel was created in a colonial way.

Surely, the German leader knows that 75 years of occupation, violence, and injustice automatically produce resistance among the oppressed nation. The root of the problem is cruel injustice and not religion.

If Scholz thinks that Germany is indebted to Jews for the Nazi Holocaust against Jews during World War II, it does not justify his support for Israel in its genocidal campaign against Palestinians, even though those who are committing these horrific crimes are Zionists and not Jews.

The ideology of Zionism was formed decades before the Holocaust, which is being used as a tool to suppress any objection to the injustice against the Palestinians.

The West’s biased, unjustified, and irrational support for Israel in violation of international law has already spoiled Israel and that is why despite the passage of several decades no political solution has been found for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Scholz and other Western leaders must know that more support for the illegal and criminal acts of Israel will only make achieving a just and sustainable peace more elusive and that we should wait for other tragedies in the future.

Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day congress of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the Spanish city of Malaga on Saturday, Scholz also said “the terrible, barbaric attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens” is something that “we will never accept.”

However, Scholz refuses to say that over the past 38 days Israel has been committing at least ten times more barbaric acts in Gaza and been collectively punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip. Craig Mokhiber, a director at the United Nations, has described the situation in Gaza as a “text-book case of genocide” in which Western governments have been “wholly complicit”.

We don’t expect the rulers in the U.S. and Britain to sympathize with the Gazans. However, we hope Scholz will change mind, seriously push for a durable peace, and stand on the right side of history. It is a moral responsibility.