“Germany – recognize Palestine!”, said MK Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Hadash–Ta’al parliamentary faction, speaking at the Haaretz Conference in Berlin, at the Haaretz conference on Thursday, November 6, titled, “Fault Lines and Futures: Israel, Gaza and Germany in Wartime and After,” were speakers discussed this moment in time for Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Germany and the world – and what a post-Gaza war region will look like.
MK Ayman Odeh during a demonstration against occupation of the Palestinian territories, April 2023 (Photo: Zo Haderekh)
According to Odeh, “Every hostage returned from Gaza is a victory. Every child and family who survived Gaza is a victory. But that is not the victory Netanyahu wants.” He said, “What has been achieved and at what price? Palestinian cities have been erased from the map. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza were killed, including 20,000 children. Hundreds of thousands were left without homes. This is not a victory. This is devastation,” and called on “those responsible for crimes against humanity” to be held accountable.
“The Israeli state was already like Sparta – now it has become a super Sparta. If this is victory, what does defeat look like?” Odeh wondered. Odeh also urged Germany to recognize a Palestinian state, saying that the only request he had of U.S. President Donald Trump when he came to address Israel’s Knesset in October was to recognize a Palestinian state. “So, I ask you too: Germany – recognize Palestine! Recognize that there are two people in our shared homeland, both with the right to self-determination,” he cried out, to great applause.
Regarding Germany, Odeh said that Berlin “carries the scars of the 20th century and stands as a living reminder of how far human cruelty can go when power is absolute. When racism is normalized and people are dehumanized. But a city like Berlin can be both a graveyard for history, resistance culture and rebirth,” he said. Odeh also said the history of Berlin teaches that “silence in the face of injustice is deadly. It was silence that made the greatest crime of the century possible. And yet, today we see silence return, dressed up in diplomatic language.”
He also criticized Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz: “He said Israel is conducting a dirty war for all of us. These are not the words of someone committed to justice, they are the words of someone outsourcing injustice and pretending to stay clean,” Odeh accused. According to Odeh, “Palestine has become a central issue worldwide, after a genocidal campaign.”
“You cannot destroy your neighbor without destroying yourself. You cannot build your future on the graves of children,” he said. “We are two people with one destiny, whether we like it or not. There is no military solution, there never was.” “The only way forward is through justice, peace and Jewish-Arab partnership towards a political solution,” he said. “Both peoples have the right to live in our shared homeland in freedom and equality. But this requires moral courage.”
“We seek a victory that seeks a free and independent state of Palestine alongside Israel,” Odeh concluded. “Only such a victory can redeem our land from endless bloodshed so that both peoples may at last live, rejoice and know the peace and safety that every human being deserves, and we know we shall win.”
Eran Etzion, former Deputy Head of Israel’s National Security Council, said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been successful in executing his strategy: “to kill the prospect of a Palestinian state.” According to Etzion, Netanyahu otherwise “is trying to perpetuate a state of war … particularly the war against democracy. As we speak, he is expediting the judicial coup,” he added.
Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken said during his opening remarks at the conference that “freedom of press is under assault around the world.” He told the conference that Israel’s ranking has deteriorated materially in measures of press freedom. Shocken noted that hundreds of journalists have been killed in Gaza, highlighting both “repressive laws” and that “pressure on Israeli journalists has intensified” under the Netanyahu government, which is adopting measures that are “methodically imposed by authoritarian regimes across the globe.” “The Netanyahu government is trying to undermine us economically and delegitimizing Haaretz,” he said.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=33035
