Germany and the UK are among Israel’s staunchest Western allies and have repeatedly defended its right to self-defence since October 7.
Germany’s Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, and her British counterpart, David Cameron, have called for a “sustainable ceasefire” instead of an immediate one in Gaza on Saturday in a joint opinion piece for The Sunday Times.
“We therefore support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable. We know many in the region and beyond have been calling for an immediate ceasefire. We recognise what motivates these heartfelt calls. It is an understandable reaction to such intense suffering, and we share the view that this conflict cannot drag on and on,” the foreign ministers said.
The two officials acknowledged “catastrophic scenes in the Middle East following Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7”, echoing the Western-led blame over the Palestinian resistance operation to the current genocide in Gaza.
Israel has been citing the Hamas operation of October 7, known as “Operation Al Aqsa Flood,” as the pretext for its war.
The operation saw the Al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’ armed wing – infiltrate the occupied territories through air, land and sea while returning to Gaza with at least 240 captives.
Al-Qassam said at the time that the operation was in response to the increased raids of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and settler violence towards Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then vowed to turn Gaza “into rubble” hours after the operation.
Commenting on the current situation in the Middle East, Baerbock and Cameron said “the region is in crisis.”
“As a British Conservative and German Green, we come from very different political traditions. But we both entered politics believing that, even in the darkest moments, we can change a desperate situation for the better, and we share a yearning for peace, in the Middle East as elsewhere around the world,” the joint article read.
Both officials accused Hamas of wanting the international community to remain “stuck in an endless cycle of violence” and of “sacrificing more innocent lives for their fanatical ideology.”
“We know many in the region and beyond have been calling for an immediate ceasefire. We recognise what motivates these heartfelt calls. It is an understandable reaction to such intense suffering, and we share the view that this conflict cannot drag on and on. That is why we supported the recent humanitarian pauses,” the German and British official diplomats explained.
Qatar, alongside Egypt, mediated a temporary truce that began on November 24 and was renewed twice, ultimately ending on December 1 and lasting seven days following two extensions.
The pause led to the release of at least 110 Israeli and foreign captives from Gaza, according to a Doha News tally. As part of the deal, Israel released 240 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.
Israel resumed its brutal war on Gaza after the truce expired on Friday, December 1, while advancing deeper into the Palestinian enclave, despite the presence of 129 captives in the Strip.
Hamas maintained that it will only release all captives if Israel agrees to a complete ceasefire.
As of Sunday, Israel has killed at least 18,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestine’s health authorities.
Euro-Med reported a much higher figure on Thursday of nearly 25,000, including more than 9,643 children and those who are presumed dead under the rubble. The European rights organisation has not updated the figure since December 14.
Despite the catastrophe on the ground, the German and British foreign ministers said that a “general and immediate ceasefire” disregards Israel’s “right to self defence.”
“We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward. It ignores why Israel is forced to defend itself,” the article added.
Berbock and Cameron added that while Israel has the right to self defence, it must still abide by international humanitarian law. The United Nations and rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have pointed out that Israel has been committing human rights violations since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza.
Germany and UK’s stance on Israel
Germany and the UK are among Israel’s staunchest Western allies and have repeatedly defended its right to self-defence since October 7. Both countries do not recognise Palestine’s statehood.
On October 8, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed that Israel’s security “is Germany’s reason of state.” Scholz was also the first Western official to visit Israel after the Hamas operation on October 17 in solidarity with Israel.
The term “reason of state” refers to Germany’s commitment to Israel’s safety and security out of historical responsibility for the Holocaust under Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Holocaust, the mass murder of the Jews, was carried out under Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship over the perception of Jews as the “racial” enemy.
On November 14, Germany’s parliament proposed a draft law on the “on termination of residence and the prevention of the naturalisation of anti-Semitic foreigners.” The second page of the bill stated that one must not deny “Israel’s right to exist” in order to acquire citizenship.
Since the start of the war on Gaza, German authorities have repeatedly cracked down on pro-Palestine protests, a matter that has been a concern by activists and rights organisations including Amnesty International.
On November 2, Germany Minister of Interior Nancy Faeser banned Hamas and Palestinian Solidarity Network Samidoun “from all activity” in the country.
“I banned all activity in Germany by HAMAS, a terrorist organisation whose aim is to destroy the State of Israel. Samidoun is an international network which disseminates anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda while claiming to promote solidarity with prisoners in different countries,” Faeser said in a statement at the time.
Britain is also complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine through the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which has justified the establishment of Israel as a “birthright” of Jews.
By 1948, the Israeli occupiers had forced out hundreds of thousands of indigenous Palestinians from their homeland in what is widely known as the “nakba”, or catastrophe.
To date, the UK has yet to formally apologise to Palestinians for the Balfour Declaration.
British police have also been cracking down on tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protests, labelling the demonstrations as “anti-semitic”.
In October, former British Foreign Minister Suella Braverman told police officers to stop the local population from waving the Palestinian flag or pro-Palestine chants.
Braverman was sacked on November 13 following an opinion piece for The Times of London, where she said the police were lenient towards pro-Palestine protests.