At an event in Berlin, Germany, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a scandalous remark when replying to a participant, reports Henryk M. Broder. in the Welt.
‘Was October 7 „the worst day” for Palestinians too?’ asked the participant of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the German Basic Law. In response, Annalena Baerbock, who has hitherto been in solidarity with Israel, described October 7 as „the worst day” not only for Israelis but also for Palestinians, when Hamas murdered 1,200 civilians in the most brutal way imaginable and took 250 people hostage in Gaza.
The ominous statement was made in the context of the following long sentence: „The Palestinian Foreign Minister, the representative of the Palestinian Authority, was in Berlin a few weeks ago. We had a press conference together, and he said exactly the same thing that I am saying here, that October 7 was the worst day for the Palestinians because they have been suffering from this terrible situation in Gaza ever since, and he said exactly what I just said, that we urgently need this agreement, some people call it a deal, to release all the hostages (… ) it is a value-driven foreign policy that does not put one person above another, but makes it clear that we care about the lives of the Israeli people, we care about the lives of the Palestinians, because the vast majority on both sides want to live in peace, and that is exactly what we are working for, however difficult it is.”
The German Foreign Minister’s statement „shows a lot of good intentions, but even more incompetence, ignorance, and overestimation of her own abilities in a very critical situation,” writes the renowned German-Jewish publicist of the Welt, Henryk M. Broder.
According to Broder, Baerbock was „shouted down by some loud guests as punishment for refusing to accept their views on the ‘genocide in Gaza’.”
Broder writes that the reference to the Palestinian foreign minister may have been a „tactical concession,” adding, however, that it cannot be ignored. Even for a young and inexperienced diplomat like Baerbock, „there must be a line that must not be crossed.” The publicist considers it a mistake to refer to the Palestinian foreign minister, if only because „he is not one of the actors who play an important or even modest role in the conflict.”
„The PLO government in Ramallah has no voice in Gaza; it is content to assure the ruling Hamas of its solidarity in the fight against the Israeli aggressor. To claim, as the German foreign minister did a few days ago, that ‘October 7 was the worst day for the Palestinians too’ is the kind of frivolity that is used to humour concentration camp jokes, for example: ‘My grandfather died in the camp too, drunk, falling off the guard tower!'”
„October 7 was by no means’ the worst day’ for the Palestinians. From Gaza to Berlin’s Sonnenallee, the massacre of 1200 citizens of Israel and other states, Jews and non-Jews, was celebrated as the beginning of the end of the Zionist occupation, ‘from the river to the sea’ „, recalls Henryk M. Broder.
Photo credit: dpa/Martin UK Lengemann
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