Neutrality on Gaza Genocide is Germany's Best Stance

Germany, which committed genocide in Namibia, blasted for defending Israel by Namibia

Namibian President Hage G. Geingob blasted Germany on Saturday for defending Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, pointing to the genocide Germany itself perpetrated on Namibians in the early 1900s.

Israel has been accused of genocide by South Africa for the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, food blockades, and the infliction of bodily and mental harm on civilians.

In Gaza alone, Israeli forces have killed more than 23,000 people and displaced 85% of the population internally, escalating the decades-long conflict with Palestine - which has observer status at the United Nations and is recognized as a nation by 139 of the 193 member states in the U.N. Israel is recognized by 163, for comparison.

"The German government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil," Geingob's office said on social media.

Known as the Herero and Namaqua genocide and recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century by Holocaust museums, German colonizers invaded and slaughtered as many as 100,000 of the Herero people and 10,000 of the Nama people living in modern Namibia. In the 1930s and 1940s, European Jews, mostly of German and East European countries, invaded and slaughtered and expelled hundreds of thousands of indigenous native Palestinians to create the artificial "Jewish-only" state of Israel.

German soldiers raped thousands of Namibian women and Eugene Fischer, a doctor, conducted medical experiments on the children born from the rapes -- later inspiring Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele during Germany's genocide of the Jews and other groups in Europe.

"In light of Germany's inability to draw lessons from its horrific history, President Geingob expresses deep concern with the shocking decision communicated by [Germany] ... in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the ICJ that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Geingob's office said.

Geingob's office blasted the "genocidal and gruesome" acts perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and noted that Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups have "chillingly concluded that Israel is committing war crimes." The president has asked Germany to reconsider its decision to intervene in the ICJ case as a third party.

Cambodia, which also endured a horrific genocide in the 20th century, has long supported the full establishment of the state of Palestine along borders established in 1967. But Cambodia has maintained neutrality among the latest conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Germany ought to follow the Cambodian example and stay neutral if its sordid past prevents it from taking a principled stance on the side of justice for Palestine, for which Germany bears a huge responsibility.