Shortly before the chancellor left for Brussels and the crucial European Council Olaf Solz sent a new message to Israel, differentiating its position from the messages of French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who asked Cyprus and the MED9 summit to stop arms exports to Israel. The US also now appears to be placing serious humanitarian law conditions on further support of Israel with weapons systems.

Olaf Scholz wanted to clarify Germany’s position: “There are and will continue to be (weapons) shipments to Israel. Israel can always count on Germany’s solidarity, now and in the future.” In order not to leave room for misunderstanding, he added: “This solidarity also includes the fact that we must allow Israel and make it capable of defending its own country.”

The chancellor reiterated that it all started on October 7, 2023 with the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and that Israel “had the right to defend itself against the attack of Hamas.” But he stressed that at the same time it is important that humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, that the rules of international law must always be respected and that the prospect of a two-state solution in the region must be maintained.

A few days ago, however, Amnesty International harshly criticized the German government for its “unilateral” attitude towards Israel, without actually condemning the possible crimes committed in Gaza and Lebanon.

Fire from AfD on German weapons in Israel

Among others, Tino Krupala, co-chairman of the far-right Alternative for Germany (which still comes second in the opinion polls behind the Christian Democrats), strongly criticized the German government. “By exporting arms to Israel you are accepting the inhumane deaths of civilians on both sides. Not only are you not contributing to de-escalation, but you are adding fuel to the fire.”

Although he referred to Israel’s right to self-defense, Tino Krupala stressed that Germany “should not send weapons to any warring party”, expressing the same position that his party expresses on Ukraine.

According to a publication in Spiegel, the shipment of weapons to Israel has increased “significantly” recently. In the past eight weeks alone, the federal government has approved arms exports worth €31 million to Israel.

As Spiegel points out, this amount is more than double compared to the first seven months of the year, according to figures from the German Ministry of Economy, which emerged after parliamentary questions.