The German Left’s complicity in the Palestinian genocide

 

While the German left passionately supports many international causes but remains conspicuously silent on the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, conveniently overlooking its own complicity in Germany’s military-industrial ties to Israel.

This is not just an abstract critique. As someone deeply embedded in these spaces, it is impossible to ignore the glaring contradictions within Germany’s so-called progressive movement. What once appeared as a beacon of international solidarity and human rights has become a façade—a hollow theater of selective outrage and performative activism. The ongoing genocide in Palestine, as bombs reduce Gaza to rubble and kill innocent people, is met with shocking silence. The German Left, which claims to stand for the oppressed, is nowhere to be found. Where are the protests? Where are the statements of outrage? They only appear when it’s geopolitically convenient, while the bodies of Palestinians continue to pile up, apparently too inconvenient for their agenda.

To provide context on whom I am critiquing within the German leftist scene: In Germany, the current cabinet is dominated by the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party, both of which claim to be center-left. These parties, however, are vocally pro-Israel and, by extension, pro-Zionist. Their government continues to arm Israel, fueling the ongoing genocide of Palestinians—Germany is the second-largest arms supplier to Israel. By default, these parties, along with their student wings occupying university governments across the country, support the apartheid state and settler colonialism. From the top government structures to the grassroots student bodies, this system is complicit in sustaining genocide.

What’s particularly galling is that these same political forces promote “refugee welcome” campaigns and peace initiatives, presenting themselves as humanitarians while actively backing apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The contradiction is blatant, yet somehow, it goes unnoticed or unchallenged in their rhetoric. The most troubling aspect of this is the silence of the broader left. There are hundreds of leftist activist groups in Germany—anti-fascists, anti-fascist feminists, anarcho-syndicalists, and other radical or progressive left groups that fight for refugee rights or social injustice—who are supposedly fighting against these power structures. Yet, after October 7, 2023, when Israeli violence against Palestinians escalated even further, these groups fell silent. It is worth mentioning that in Germany, the radical left faction ‘Anti-Deutsch’ (Anti-German), whose position is to oppose German nationalism and criticize the mainstream political culture of Germany, is also pro-Zionist.  (more...)

The German Left’s complicity in the Palestinian genocide