UN rapporteur denounces Germany’s defense of Israel’s massacres in Gaza

Ramallah, (ST) – The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese has denounced German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s defense of the Israeli occupation’s bombing of Palestinian civilian displacement sites in Gaza, warning of the legal repercussions of supporting a state that commits international crimes.

This came in a post by the rapporteur on X, in which she responded to the statements of the German Foreign Minister, which legitimize Israeli attacks targeting places where Palestinian civilians are sheltering.

The rapporteur expressed her concern about Germany’s position on Israel and Palestine and its “serious consequences.”

“As a UN Independent Expert, I am deeply concerned by the stance Germany is taking on Israel/Palestine, and its dangerous implications and consequences,” she said on X. “Minister Baerbock should be invited to provide the evidence of what she claims, and then explain how “civilian objects losing protected status” justify the massacres Israel is committing in Gaza and elsewhere.”

Albanese added, “If Germany has decided to stand with a State that is committing international crimes then it is a political choice, but it also has legal implications. May justice prevail where politics abhorrently has  failed.”

In turn, the Islamic Jihad Movement strongly condemned the statements of the German Foreign Minister saying that they represent a dangerous justification for targeting civilian sites and a cover-up for the crimes of the occupation that kills civilians and destroys infrastructure including schools, hospitals and homes.

The movement clarified that it would have been more appropriate for the Minister to condemn the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the occupation army in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and that the German government should reconsider its position and review its policies towards supporting the occupation and following the approach of other European countries that have announced a halt to supplying the occupation with weapons, as supporting the occupation militarily in light of its crimes against civilians makes Germany complicit in human rights violations.

The movement called on the international community and countries that claim to protect human rights to take urgent steps to ensure respect for international law and protect civilians in Palestine and Lebanon and put an immediate end to the Israeli occupation’s use of excessive and disproportionate force that threatens the lives of thousands of innocent people.

Yesterday, the German Foreign Minister said before the German Parliament: “Israel has the right to bomb civilian areas,” in a shocking statement that came one day after the massacre committed by the occupation when it bombed the tents of the displaced in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the middle of the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the burning of dozens of people, noting that civilian areas, hospitals and shelters are protected under international law.

RaghdaSawas