A State Stained. Again.
This post is a modified reproduction of an article previously published on LinkedIn.
Our previous article in this series on citizen war criminals examined the threat these citizen war criminas pose to communities. In this article, we focus on a specific and highly disturbing incident: The felicitation of citizens involved in the genocide in Palestine by German officials.
Friendly Faces. Deadly Intentions.
Walking and living in our midst as our neighbours and work colleagues are individuals who have carried out grotesque acts of violence in Gaza and in the West Bank. They have murdered civilians, destroyed civilian infrastructure and private property, and then revelled in their crime. This proximity to potential war criminals is particularly acute and troubling when we realise how fleeting our safety in a non-war zone is: that neighbour, that colleague are faces we are familiar with, but whose deviousness and proclivity to violence we are totally unaware of.
Chicanery Rules
While many western governments, especially G7 nations, vocally condemn terrorism and war crimes, there is a glaring inconsistency in their approach to dealing with citizens who have committed war crimes in Palestine. Countries like USA, UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany have refused to prosecute their citizens involved in war crimes in Gaza, despite legal obligations to do so. This raises profound questions about the commitment of these countries to international law and human rights, something that most of us have accepted with resignation does not exist and has been a masterful bluff.
Germany: A Case Study in State-Endorsed Criminality
The situation in Germany serves as a stark example of moral, ethical, and legal ambiguity. Developments in 2024 in the German state of Hessen have brought this into sharp focus: Uwe Becker, the undersecretary of the finance ministry and a member of the ruling CDU, publicly feted war criminal returnees with a commemorative plaque. Controversially, this plaque depicts a map encompassing not only the entirety of occupied Palestine (incl. Gaza and the West Bank) but also the Golan Heights (Syria) and the Shebaa Farms (Lebanon), which the current Al-Joulani regime in Syria has - as per reports - agreed to accede to the zionist entity.
The public feting of returning war criminals by Uwe Becker, a high-ranking political figure, has profound implications:
It is a declaration of support for actions that constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
It endorses illegal territorial claims and thus undermines Germany’s official foreign policy stance.
It devalues and dehumanises Palestinian lives and derecognises the sovereignity of nations in the Levant.
The honouring of these returnees poses a significant challenge to a constitutional state and democratic and humanitarian values that Germany, like many western states, claims to uphold. It raises critical questions about trust in the state, its office-bearers, and its many organs, as there is no consistency in upholding international and domestic law, human rights, and the protection of civilian populations in conflict/war zones.
This incident in Germany has since set a dangerous precedent where political expediency has been prioritised over moral, ethical, and legal obligations. In a state of desperation and recklessness, it has become a new normal for the German government, German politicians, German police, AND German judiciary to selectively apply the law as and when it suits the German state’s political agenda vis-à-vis Palestine:
Criminalising slogans and signs referring to the Palestinian Resistance
Physical violence against demonstrators
Use of lawfare and economic violence such as sanctions on individuals
Dawn raids at activists’ homes
Arbitrary suspension of fundamental rights, incl. the right to public protest and right to political opinion
Actions such as these erode the foundational principles of justice and accountability that are crucial to maintaining both international and domestic peace and security, and people’s faith in the democratic system.
This development should serve as a clarion call for the public, the voters to take the fight to the political establishment if they do not want to live a life in tyranny and in fear.
When I was about 12 years old I often visited Germany with my parents for vacation. It was the neighbouring country of the Netherlands and unlike that country had real mountains.
One small town next to the Mosel river was Zell. My father pointed to a small shop window and showed me an old Nazi magazine. Ever since I looked at older Germans with suspicion: what had they done in the war? Suspicion faded when I met my German wife and her relatives.
Now suspicion shifted to Israeli tourists, could they have been violent against Palestinian civilians? This was before the genocide started!
The last two years, my suspicion against Germans, in particular public figures started again. It is sad.
How um Gottes Willen could Bearbock be voted chairwoman of the UNGA?? Something is seriously wrong in this world.