German public opinion has shifted dramatically against Israel, with 57% now holding a negative view of the country following its military actions in Gaza, according to a new survey released Friday.
The poll by Allensbach research institute for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper marks a striking reversal from 2022, when only 23% expressed negative views of Israel.
The survey found growing concerns about Israel’s military attacks, with 65% of Germans considering Israel’s actions in Gaza “inappropriate.” Only 13% voiced support for the military campaign.
In a particularly notable finding, 73% of respondents indicated they saw “some truth” in the statement that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute “genocide,” while only 9% explicitly rejected this characterization.
The story of Israel is a story as old as time. An abuse victim growing up to become the abuser and repeat the cycle.
Erm, not just Germans. I would suggest the majority of Europeans that understand right from wrong.
Sure, but Germans are usually fully on board with literally anything Israel does. Denazification was a pathetic failure and Germans, as a group, mostly think that the problem with the holocaust is that the victims were Jewish. If even the German public is turning against Israel they’re probably running out of time.
But the germans are usually the last ones to do so. The fact that the apartheid regime is losing favorability in Germany is basically a death knell
Finally joined the majority of the world
Holy shit even the germins are catching on, it’s joever for the occupation regime of west palestine
Finally!
Fellow German here. Since October 2023 the information regarding Israel x Gaza has been wonky. Before that in history class (~10 years ago) the conflict has been viewed as “They are both responsible for the current state, peace talks never worked, sometimes there was hope but both did bad things”. The focus was in general more on israel as a state and gaza as the less defined part that suffers. Personally, I was never happy with a country that defines itself by their religion. I also felt like taking Israel back after such a long time and driving out the inhabitants is difficult to defend.
October 2023: The government immediately stood behind Israel and it took a long time until Israel’s behaviour was really questioned by journalists/media. Politicians still hold back. Many Germans, me included, thought something along the lines of “it is a very complex situation that goes back years. It was never resolved and it is understandable to some degree that Israel never wants to be terrorised like this again.” - a bit like America’s actions after 9/11.
For me the greatest shift came with the killed aid workers and finally with Amnesty International’s recognition of a genocide. I didn’t entirely trust any (whether pro or con) media footage before that due to claims from both sides that the other side is faking them.
Before the election I asked the parties what their plans are regarding Israel and Gaza. None answered. A while ago I have asked the new government what their plans are and linked the Amnesty International genocide pdf. I got an answer but just a forwarding to another agency which I haven’t heard back from yet.
I still think the conflict is rather complex, but Israel is currently largely at fault. I have no idea how the situation can ever be solved as I don’t see a power great and willing enough to enforce any peaceful contract between the parties. While I think it was unjust to recreate Israel the way it was recreated, I don’t think it’s feasible to undo a state. The ideal solution would be to unify both countries under a good constitution that gives everyone equal rights, review the stealing of land to find compromises and forget everything so that the coming generations are unable to not see that we are all equal but this will never happen.
I also felt like taking Israel back after such a long time and driving out the inhabitants is difficult to defend.
Yikes. It’s not just “difficult to defend”, it’s indefensible. Israel was founded by the brutal expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. That alone is enough to make the foundation of the modern state of Israel an act of evil and a crime against humanity. The erasure of Palestinian history, though, is also disgusting. Palestinians are not Arabs. Just like the Romans didn’t displace the people of Britain in the classical period and the Normans didn’t displace them in the mediaeval, the arab conquest of Palestine didn’t displace the previous inhabitants. Modern Palestinians are largely descended from ancient Palestinians (and therefore Jews) who converted during/after the conquest.
Now that absolutely does not matter. The fact is that Palestinians were living in the region and had a right to their homes that was breached during the creation of Israel - whether their ancestors had been there for 200 or 2000 years doesn’t matter. They were the legitimate inhabitants and were unlawfully ejected, that’s what matters. But painting them as a separate population who somehow “replaced” the “real” inhabitants is not cool. The idea that anyone but Israel are at fault when the entire nation was founded in an enormous act of ethnic cleansing is just revolting. Even if Arabs had in fact “ejected” the original inhabitants during the conquest it still wouldn’t be acceptable to eject their inhabitants from their homeland of the last ~1400 years, but that isn’t even true and modern Palestinians literally are the descendants of ancient /classical era Jews.
Israel wasn’t “taken back”. It wasn’t “recreated”. Zionists have no connection to the land they have stolen and the modern state of Israel has absolutely no continuity with any ancient states. In fact the only people who can meaningfully claim to be the inheritors of the ancient state of Israel are the Palestinians who were ejected by <drumroll> a bunch of white people with German, other central European, and american accents in the late 1940s. Just the idea of “enforcing” a contract which literally just said “you give us all the best land in your country, and in return we get all the best land in your country” (the partition plan, which Britain had absolutely no moral right to force on anyone in the first place) is mask off, unapologetic, Hitlerian Nazi rhetoric, and it’s not more acceptable just because the beneficiaries are Jewish.
God Denazification was a pathetic failure. Just look at you talking about how Palestinians are partially responsible for the genocide and ethnic cleansing being visited upon them… Because they didn’t agree to be ethnically cleansed “peacefully”. Just truly, honestly sickening and evil.
“largely at fault” you know you’re still a piece of shit right?
They will do that thing where they pivot from supporting genocide to supporting the “Jews control the world” conspiracy. I’ve seen it so much already
