Israel is violating the law of war in Gaza, a senior Berlin official has conceded, while insisting Germany won’t be the 29th signatory to a letter demanding Israel “end now” its military action.
Amid reports of an imminent ceasefire, Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), argued the letter was “already being used by Hamas and other parts of the Arab world for propaganda purposes”.
“That doesn’t need to happen with German assistance,” he said.
However, Mr Hardt admitted German officials no longer believe that Israel is doing everything it can to allow enough humanitarian aid into Gaza.
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“I tend towards the view that they are clearly doing too little,” he said, “and that would be in contradiction to the obligations Israel has under the law of war.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has shrugged off demands that Germany sign the letter and insisted it echoes a recent, critical EU statement he helped devise – and signed.
Since taking power in May, Mr Merz has adopted more critical language, distancing himself from the idea of “unconditional support” for Israel from Berlin.
In Thursday’s Zeit weekly, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul declined to say whether Berlin had carried out a promised review of weapons deliveries to Israel. However, he said he was anxious to keep open diplomatic channels to his Israeli opposite number, Gideon Sa’ar.
“I have the feeling that I get through and, though I’m not yet happy with that, what we have achieved between the EU and Israeli govermment is a start,” he said.
In his Berlin ministry, meanwhile, protest is growing – led by younger diplomatic staff, demanding action to follow critical words.
Reportedly at least 150 diplomats have taken the unusual step of forming a protest group under the motto “loyal, conforming”. A foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the existence of the group, with members mostly under 40 years old.
When they presented their arguments at a ministry staff meeting earlier this month, attended by the minister, attendees say they were “greeted with applause”.
As well as a tougher approach to Israel, the group is demanding the creation of a “dissent channel” in the ministry, where staff can air protest to official policy line without fearing consequences.
Their protest echoes demands by Germany’s junior coalition partner, the centre-left junior Social Democratic Party (SPD), to sign the international letter.
“The reports of starving children and a rapidly-escalating famine show we have reached the much-vaunted ‘point of no return’,” noted two senior SPD officials in a letter to Mr Merz and Mr Wadephul.
Opposition Green politician Katharina Dröger accused the German government of being all talk and no action: “If Friedrich Merz means it with his [critical] words, then Germany should sign the statement”.
