Germany wants Israel to sign a "genocide clause" agreeing to stop the killing of innocents in the Gaza Strip before resuming the delivery of weapons, reported the Axel Springer publishing house in Deutschland. The last time Berlin sent weapons to Israel was back in March, with no further plans to send anything more unless Israel stops the excessive killings.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economy Minister Robert Habeck are the ones who "blocked new deliveries" of German weapons to Israel, further reported German media giant Bild. These two Green party politicians are hoping that Israel will promise not to use German weapons against innocent civilians in Gaza before any more are sent to the Jewish state.
"The Israeli government must give the German government a written assurance that arms exports from Germany will not be used for genocide," Bild reported, citing government and defense industry sources. German law, by the way, strictly prohibits all delivery of weapons to countries that are caught using them against civilians.
"Arms deliveries to Israel are about compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law," an individual familiar with the matter told Politico. "The reason for requesting such a commitment is that a German administrative court could otherwise put a stop to it."
(Related: Back in August, Bild reported that Israel had imminent plans to invade Lebanon, which has since occurred – what will happen next?)
West Jerusalem promising not to kill civilians in Gaza with German weapons
In accordance with Germany's request, West Jerusalem reportedly sent the necessary written promises to continue receiving weapons of war from Europe's economic powerhouse, though not without heavy criticism from other German politicians.
The ruling Free Democratic Party, along with multiple other politicians in the German parliament, are calling on both the Greens and Chancellor Olaf Scholz to issue clarifying statements about the contentious situation concerning weapons exports to Israel.
"Scholz, as the chairman of the Federal Security Council, also bears responsibility here," commented Christian Democratic Union head Friedrich Merz.
As for Baerbock, she has publicly supported the idea that Israel has a right to defend itself, which is what the Jewish state claims it is doing in Gaza right now, but in a more recent speech she clarified that Israel still has to abide by international humanitarian law.
"International humanitarian law and Israel's right to exist are inexplicably linked," Baerbock said last week.
Thus far, at least 42,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have died at the hands of Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which says it is "absurd" that anyone is accusing Israel of committing genocide. As Israel has claimed for many decades, the reason for so much bloodshed is because Hamas supposedly uses Palestinian civilians as human shields.
"Isn't this closing the barn door after the horse escapes?" one commenter wrote about how the time to enforce legal restrictions of Israel's weapons usage was back when this whole thing started, not more than a year after the fact.
"Too little, too late," wrote another. "Assuming these Western governments cave in to domestic pressure of halting arms deliveries to the apartheid genocidal regime, the latter might respond with psy-ops involving Islamophobic false flags across Europe to damage the pro-Palestinian sentiment."
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