In siding with Zionist genocidaires, Germany ignores its own history of genocide in Namibia

As global outrage continues to escalate against the settler-colonial Israeli regime’s slaughter of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, it is necessary to glance back at Africa, where the first genocide of the 20th century occurred. Although 120 years separates the tragic events in Namibia and Palestine, on two different continents, the horror of premeditated genocides evoke unequalled pain and suffering for victims of genocidaires.

Historians record that in 1904, the Herero and Nama people of Namibia — then known as German South-West Africa — rose up against the German colonisers in their struggle for freedom. The war launched by Germany against the Herero and Nama, and the infamous extermination order to crush the indigenous population issued by General Lothar von Trotha, is considered by most historians to be the first genocide of the 20th century: “Within the German borders, every male Herero, armed or unarmed… will be shot to death. I will no longer take in women or children but will drive them back to their people or have them fired at. These are my words to the Herero people. [From] The great general of the mighty German Kaiser.”

Various sources confirm that in the following four years, tens of thousands of men, women and children were shot, tortured or driven into the Kalahari Desert to starve by German troops.

It is against this backdrop that in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice, many commentators have been shocked to learn of the current German government’s decision to back Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime in the apartheid state of Israel.

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Germany has declared that it will oppose South Africa’s application by casting its lot behind Israel. “The German government firmly and explicitly rejects the accusation of genocide that has now been made against Israel before the International Court of Justice,” said spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. “This accusation has no basis whatsoever.”

Hebestreit stressed that Germany bears special responsibility for Israel due to the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War Two. Berlin, he insisted, will continue to support Israel to defend itself against Hamas. “In view of Germany’s history, crimes against humanity and Shoah [the Holocaust], the government is particularly committed to the UN Genocide Convention,” he claimed. “The German government supports the International Court of Justice in its work, as it has done for many decades. The government intends to intervene as a third party in the main hearing.”

However, this bizarre move has sparked controversy, and rightly so. The President of Namibia, Dr Hage G Geingob, issued a strong condemnation rejecting Germany’s support for the genocidal intent of the racist Israeli state against innocent civilians in Gaza. He reminded Germany that it committed the first genocide of the 20th Century on Namibian soil, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions. “The German government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil”, declared Geingob.

The Namibian president criticised Germany’s inability to draw lessons from its horrific history in Namibia. Furthermore, he expressed deep concern at the shocking decision communicated by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Worryingly, ignoring the violent deaths of over 23 000 Palestinians in Gaza and various United Nations reports disturbingly highlighting the internal displacement of 85 per cent of civilians in Gaza amid acute shortages of food and essential services,” President Geingob pointed out, “the German government has chosen to defend in the International Court of Justice the genocidal and gruesome acts of the Israeli government against innocent civilians in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

He asserted correctly that Germany cannot morally express commitment to the UN Convention against Genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza.

Indeed, various international organisations such as Human Rights Watch have chillingly concluded that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, and have declared it to have passed the legal threshold for the crime of apartheid, which is akin to a crime against humanity.

President Geingob reiterated his call made on 31 December: “No peace-loving human being can ignore the carnage waged against Palestinians in Gaza.”

In that vein, the Namibian leader appealed to the German government to reconsider its untimely decision to intervene as a third-party in defence and support of the genocidal acts of Israel before the International Court of Justice.

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It is no surprise that Hamas has noted these developments with alarm. “We expected that Germany had learned a lesson from its recent history, as it committed genocide more than once in the past century, the first of which was against the population of Namibia,” said the Islamic Resistance Movement. “It is not permissible, under any circumstances, for Germany to attempt to compensate for its sins at the expense of our people and by defending the criminals who commit the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinians [in Gaza].”

Both Namibia and Hamas have called on the German government to retract its decision immediately, and to stand by the Palestinian victims and their legitimate rights to freedom, independence and the right to self-determination.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.