Solidarity following terror attack

On the morning of 7 October Islamist Hamas terrorist attacked southern Israel from Gaza. Hundreds died and the terrorists took over 200 hostages. Israel initially responded with air attacks and the Gaza Strip has been largely sealed off. Germany’s Federal Government strongly condemned Hamas’ violence and assure Israel of its full solidarity. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock travelled to Israel a few days after the attack. There they called for the release of the hostages, humanitarian aid to Gaza and a de-escalation of the Middle East conflict. Voices from politics and society in Germany:

Olaf ScholzFederal Chancellor of Germany

“Right now there is only one place for Germany: Firmly at the side of Israel. That’s what I mean when I say that the security of Israel is Germany’s reason of state. The responsibility we bear as a consequence of our own history and the Holocaust makes it our duty to stand up for the existence and security of the state of Israel. We are guided by this responsibility,” Scholz said after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.

Annalena BaerbockFederal Foreign Minister of Germany

“Israel has our unbreakable solidarity against Hamas. Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism within the bounds of what is allowed under international law for exceptional situations such as these. This is an enormously difficult challenge in the face of a dreadful foe which misuses people as human shields. It is the perfidious calculus of Hamas to expose the Palestinian civilian population to death, suffering and hardship in order to create a breeding ground for further terrorism. Yet at the same time this terror aims to put at risk the steps towards rapprochement which have previously been achieved, to threaten Arab neighbours, and to separate Arab countries from the Global North. These terrorist calculations must not be allowed to succeed,” said Baerbock while visiting the Middle East.

Meron Mendel, Director of the Anne Frank Educational Center

“We must look at the forces within Israeli society and Palestinian society which want to work towards peace, and see which liberal forces exist beyond those forces which repeatedly inflame this conflict with their radical, extremist and fundamentalist philosophies. (...) We must support liberal forces on both sides,” said the German-Israeli educator when speaking to the Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcaster.

Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Israeli Cultural Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria

“The images are harrowing. In their hour of need we stand at the side of Israel and its people. We are thinking of the victims and the many Israelis who must take arms to defend their country,” wrote Knobloch, 90, on X immediately after the attack.

Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany

“That Hamas has specifically called for violence against Jews all around the world demonstrates the scale of this terror. I hope that the situation does not escalate in Germany. The concerns of the Jewish community must be taken seriously,” Schuster told the magazine Der Spiegel.

Aiman Mazyek, Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany

“I will not conceal the fact that there are Muslims who are anti-Semitic, and we must combat this. Any form of anti-Semitism or racism is a sin in Islam. As German Muslims, we have a particular responsibility, including towards Jews and Israel,” Mazyek said in an interview with German TV news programme Tagesthemen.