New German law threatens naturalisation of pro-Palestinian immigrants

A new German law requiring immigrants to recognise Israel’s right to exist as a condition to gain nationality is Berlin’s attempt to whitewash its brutal Nazi past at the cost of Palestinian lives, a leading political expert tells TRT World.

A parliamentary group made up of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) passed into act a bill to “prevent the naturalization of anti-Semitic foreigners” on Friday.

The bill states that it is “pushing for the acquisition of German citizenship to be dependent on a commitment to Israel's right to exist and a declaration that the naturalization applicant has not pursued or will pursue any endeavors directed against the existence of the State of Israel”.

The bill however doesn’t make exactly clear what the “commitment” entails or involves.

Given that Germany has already formally endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, often used to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, the passing of the bill potentially makes it a crime to advocate for the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation.

“Germany demands acknowledgment of Israel's right to exist as Israel wages a genocidal war in Gaza,” says distinguished Jewish-American scholar and activist Norman Finkelstein,

“Not so long ago, as Germany exterminated the Jews, it demanded acknowledgment of its right to exist against the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy. It seems that Germany needs to undergo a second de-Nazification.”

Since the law involves an amendment to Citizenship Act such that “foreigners” not pursue activities that oppose the “existence of the state of Israel”, Germany may now be on the road to denying citizenship to anyone who is pro-Palestinian.

Such activities arguably include challenging the continued existence of Israel in its current form, which – as is obvious in Gaza at the moment – involves routinely harming and violently disrupting Palestinian life.

A recent report by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights illuminates how Israel’s been doing this since October 7 alone.

“Israeli forces continue their onslaught [in Gaza] with thousands of military attacks, systematically destroying houses, residential neighborhoods, civilian structures, roads, and infrastructure”.

Additionally the report states: “All collected data and evidence confirms that the extensive bombing and destruction are not linked to any military necessity. Instead, they form part of a systematic destruction operation within an unprecedented strategy of collective punishment”.

Since October 7, Israel has killed over 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza, approximately 4,650 of whom are children.

Despite this, the preamble of the bill demonised recent shows of Palestinian solidarity in Germany – calling for an end to the killing – while characterising them as “disgusting rallies and demonstrations.”

Palestinian-American journalist Hebh Jamal, currently living in Germany, shares in a recent article: “I attended multiple [pro-Palestinian] demonstrations across Germany, and the only visible threat to public safety has been from the police.”

According to Anadolu Agency, “the [German] government allowed exports of almost €303 million ($323 million) to Israel up to Nov. 2 – almost 10 times as much for what was exported in entire 2022 (€32 million), according to the German Economic Ministry

“The approvals include primarily components for air defense and communications equipment”.

Such technology is systematically used to target and kill Palestinians by Israel.

Germany’s military support for Israel, in light of the law, shows that it is willing to uphold an unacceptable double-standard, namely that it is permissible for Israel to wrong Palesitnians but not for Germans to oppose that.

By the same twisted logic, Germans should not care that Israel maintains a dominant position over Palestinians through a system of apartheid, disadvantaging Palestinins in practically all areas of life.

Speaking with Jacobin last October Wieland Hoban – chairman of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East – said: “The idea of taking responsibility for the Holocaust was intertwined with geopolitical concerns from the start. In more recent times, support for Israel – whether material or political – has been relentlessly promoted as a German obligation”.