Cease-fire in Gaza: Why Germany abstained in UN votes

Germany's decision to abstain in the October 27 vote at the United Nations General Assembly angered Israel's ambassador in Berlin. Three weeks earlier, Hamas terrorists had brutally attacked Israel, killing hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians, and taking many more hostage.

After Israel responded by launching a massive attack on the Gaza Strip, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire to help the people of Gaza. However, the text of the resolution did not address the crimes committed by Hamas. 14 UN member states voted against, including the United States, Israel itself, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Austria. Germany was one of 45 states that abstained.

Israeli ambassador: "That's not enough!"

"We need Germany's support at the UN," Israel's ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, said afterwards. It wasn't enough, he declared, to abstain "because people are incapable of saying explicitly that Hamas is responsible for this brutal massacre."

That was the reason for the abstention: Germany was not prepared to vote in favor of the resolution because it neither mentioned nor condemned the Hamas terror attacks. But it didn't want to vote against the resolution, either, because that would have shown too little consideration for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Furthermore, Germany will always advocate for a cease-fire in any conflict, on principle.

Germany had worked intensively with Canada to try to improve the text before the vote, adding condemnation of the Hamas attacks and hostage-taking, and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages. However, this failed to gain the backing of a majority of countries.

Chancellor and foreign office support the abstentions

And the same scenario played out again. On Tuesday, December 12, Germany again abstained at the UN General Assembly in New York. Again, member states were asked to vote on a text that called for a cease-fire, and again Germany voted neither yes nor no.

Its voting behavior was decided on in a close consultation between the Chancellery and the Foreign Office, and many politicians in the Bundestag, from different parties, expressed their approval.

"We all want an end to the violence. And Germany is strongly advocating an end to the violence," Max Lucks, a Green Party politician, told DW. "Germany is calling on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law. But Germany had to abstain, because the resolution does not mention who is the aggressor in this situation, and who is the victim."

Criticism of Israel is growing

Germany's voting behavior also takes into account its particular circumstances. For Germany, after the crimes committed during the Nazi era, its relationship with Israel is "a matter of state" ("Staatsräson"), meaning its solidarity with Israel is unshakeable. On the other hand, around 5.5 million Muslims live in Germany, and their empathy lies primarily with the people of the Gaza Strip.

So what has changed in the time between the two abstentions? International criticism of Israel is growing. The massive attacks on the Gaza Strip have now even prompted US President Joe Biden, a staunch defender of Israel, to intervene.

Biden told his Democratic Party supporters that initially, in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, there was worldwide solidarity with Israel. But Biden said the government in Jerusalem now risks losing this support through "indiscriminate bombing."

Asked on December 14 if he wanted Israel to scale down its operations by the end of December, Biden said: "I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives — not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful."

Politicians stress historical responsibility toward Israel

But for many politicians in the German Bundestag, solidarity with Israel is still absolute.

"Israel has the right to defend itself, and the right to destroy Hamas, which represents the greatest threat in Israel's history," Jürgen Hardt, the CDU's foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag, told DW. "And a cease-fire that is not explicitly limited to a certain period of time, hours or days, will only help Hamas recover."

SPD representative Ralf Stegner had an even more fundamental explanation for why Germany had been unable to vote in favor this time as well.

"For Germany, disregarding Israel's security is absolutely unthinkable," he said. "The state of Israel was founded as a consequence of the Holocaust. That is our historical responsibility — and the political reason for acting this way."

"We welcome the UN General Assembly's demand that the hostages be freed," said Jürgen Trittin, long-time foreign policy expert for the Greens. "What is still lacking, though, is a clear acknowledgement that Hamas is not a liberation movement but a terrorist organization — an anti-Palestinian terrorist organization."

That's not a slip of the tongue: Trittin deliberately called Hamas an anti-Palestinian organization, because in the long term its actions also undermine Palestinians' hopes for a state of their own.

Baerbock: 'The Palestinians' suffering is unbearable'

The day after the second abstention, a spokesperson for German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) in Berlin reiterated the rationale behind Germany's voting behavior in the UN General Assembly.

"It does not make sense to us to demand a cease-fire when we must assume that one side will continue to launch its rocket attacks from Gaza," the spokesperson said.

However, this time, unlike at the end of October, Baerbock explicitly stated that "the suffering of civilians in Gaza is unbearable."

This, then, has changed between the two abstentions. Criticism of Israel is growing — also in Germany. But Berlin will not agree to a cease-fire that fails to mention the terrorist actions of Hamas.

This article has been translated from German.