Dirty Work

“Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us”. When the German Chancellor stated it during the last G7, held in mid-June, he was proud of himself and proud of being a pro-Israel supporter whatever it happens. Those words, however, were probably the clearest statement ever by a European politician of this century which is signalling the irreparable decline of Europe’s credibility and diplomatic legitimacy in the world. While Mr Merz was saying that, he was unvoluntarily signing the death warrant of Europe’s idea as a global power that guarantees an international order based on rule fo law, democracy and human rights. On June 24, Mr Merz repeated his unquestionable support for Israel’s deeds at the Bundestag, adding: “Germany will never approve a suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel”. Though pretending to show compassion for Gaza’s women, elderly and children – by calling on Israel to treat them humanly – in a few seconds he wiped off all European diplomatic efforts to isolate the Jewish State, and pardoned all Israeli crimes committed in the past few months, thus simply removing the Palestinian question from the picture. Was he maybe consciously preparing the ground to restore Europe’s readiness to play the Law of the Jungle?

It is no coincidence that it was a German who uttered those words. A few days earlier, EU Commission’s president Ursula van der Leyen, another German national, phoned Netanyahu right after Israel’s aggression against Iran to express Israel’s right to self-defence, and that Iran is the main source of regional instability. The statement, published on her X account, was followed by useless and hypocritical expressions of concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It is hard not to think what a shameful leader Europe has indeed, ready to justify Israel’s military adventures carried out outside of any framework of internationally recognised legitimacy and order, with the result of undermining the credibility of the institution she leads.In this same period, moreover, repression against movements defending Palestinians in Germany goes on. The climax was reached when German authorities expelled three EU nationals, two Irishmen and one Pole, for carrying out pro-Palestinian protests deemed to be “anti-semitic” and to encourage “terrorism”. None of those who were issued with deportation orders had a criminal record. That happened exactly at the end of April 2025, not in the 30’s.

This is a political and cultural bias, whereby facts are turned upside down, which severely affects the German establishment and a large part of the country’s society. Because of that, any Israeli aggression becomes a right to self-defence, crimes in Gaza have been silently removed, the debate within the EU on sanctions against Israel shelved, and anti-Iran propaganda virulently fuelled, although there is no indication that Iran is building nuclear weapons. 

However: those who are carrying out a colonial project ‘from the river to the sea’ are not the Palestinians, not even the Hamas movement; it is the state of Israel with its messianic and neoimperialist government; those who are committing war crimes on a daily basis since months, who are killing an entire nation on the brink of starvation, who are erasing civilian infrastructures, are not the Palestinian militants, it is the state of Israel. Those in the Middle East who possess nuclear warheads, at least 90, and is not a party to the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has not accepted IAEA safeguards on some of its principle nuclear activities, is not Iran, but Israel. All these truths are being dramatically overturned and swept under the carpet with the complicity of EU countries, with Germany at the forefront, whose weight in the EU Council of Ministers and in the European parliament makes the difference.

The most obvious justification for this distortion that characterises German politics is its historical responsibility for the Holocaust. For this reason, today’s generations, and the Palestinians and the Israelis in particular, are still paying with their blood, for that tragic page in history. But that’s not all: Germany has never fully healed the wound caused by carrying out the first genocide in modern history, in the lands of Namibia, and its echoes still resonate today. 

When, at the beginning of 2024, the International Court of Justice was examining the complaint filed by South Africa against Israel for genocide, I found Namibia’s stance, a country usually absent from international news and analysis, curious to say the least, but certainly enlightening. During the Hague Court hearings on South Africa’s petition, the German government took the defence of Israel, and Namibia rose to prominence in the news. Its president, Hage Geingob, asked Germany to reconsider its decision to intervene as a third party in defence of Israel, arguing that Berlin cannot morally express its adherence to the UN Convention against Genocide and at the same time defend Israel in court (note).

Now, readers may ask, what does Namibia have to do with the Middle East? Well, it has a lot to do with it, because German colonists massacred more than 70,000 Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1908 in what is considered the first genocide of the 20th century. In 2021, the Berlin government acknowledged that Germany had committed genocide in Namibia, but for many Namibians, the descendants of the perpetrators of those crimes have not yet fully “atoned” for them (note), and only an attitude of “colonial solidarity” could prompt those descendants to defend in the Hague Court military practices that are, at the very least, suspected of generating genocide.

If you look back at history, and dig into its dark sides, you often understand much more the contemporary absurd and hypocritical policies of many European countries, especially of those with a colonial past, with Germany at the forefront. By the way, I’ve recently experienced myself what censorship is, when I criticised Germany’s attitudes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while I was working at the European parliament’s administration; but that is a personal issue. More importantly, my former colleagues of the EU Staff for Peace, who had sent in 2024 and 2025 a letter to the leaders of EU institutions denouncing EU apathy to the plight of Palestinians, have yet to receive an answer. In the corridors, people say that Van der Leyen was very upset with the letter, considering that EU officials should restrain from expressing their views on political affairs… 

My focus on Germany’s role in reinforcing European tolerance of Israeli crimes is not of course a free pass to absolve other European countries of their responsibilities. With its increasingly close alignment with Israeli rightwing forces, Italy is de facto betraying its antifascist, republican roots. The Northern League, member of Italy’s governmental coaliton, is currently pushing forward in Italy’s Senate a bill criminalising any critical stance against Zionism. Italy, however, is a dwarf in international relations compared to Germany, whatever the Italian prime minister may say. Its voice is not decisive on Middle East affairs, and it is nowadays the megaphone of America’s power.  On the other hand, the atrocities that decimated the Congolese population during the harsh economic exploitation imposed by Belgian King Leopold II at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries are another heavy legacy of European colonialism that should make current governments more resolutely active against the ongoing extermination in Gaza (note).

What matters is that Europe as that entity defined in the Treaty of the EU, founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and human rights, and integrating these values into its internal and external policies, is evaporating like sand carried away by the wind. By embracing the Law of the Strongest, Europe is becoming more and more defenseless and fragile to any internal and external aggression, as well as to future authoritarian drifts. And since this Europe isn’t able to force the blockade around Gaza by sending their naval cargo ships carrying humanitarian aid, escorted by the navy, nor to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the real challenge for us is how to build a stronger, transnational movement capable of offering an alternative vision, providing solidarity across borders, and bringing perpetrators and accomplices of genocide to justice.

One step forward and two steps back, it is time to change the rhythm of this macabre dance that is leading to destruction in the Middle East, and soon in all Europe. We should realise this, even in the West: take a real step back, pause to reflect, renounce statements that lead nowhere, call crimes what they are, avoid dressing up as colonialists. And stop rejoicing for the dirty work done by criminal governments in someone else’s interest.

1. Statement from the Presidency of Namibia dated 13/1/2024. See Facebook.
2. What was then South West Africa remained under German occupation from 1884 to 1915. The genocide was perpetrated to suppress a rebellion, and it is estimated that four-fifths of the population was wiped out. According to the Namibian Genocide Association, however, Germany’s acknowledgement three years ago and its offer of compensation through development investments are not enough. It is not just a matter of repairing a mass slaughter with investments, but also of restoring justice to those who have lost their ancestral lands, now in the hands of the German-speaking community, which represents less than 1% of the Namibian population (“Germany officially recognises colonial-era Namibia genocide”, BBC, 28/5/2021). To date, Namibians are still waiting.
3. In July 2025, the collective Droit pour Gaza (Right for Gaza), together with Palestinian victims and other associations, brought legal action against the Belgian State for ‘inaction in the face of genocide and war crimes committed by Israel’. (RTBF).

Gianluca Solera is an Italian activist, writer and civil society development professional. He bears a surname of Sephardic origin and he considers himself a man of the frontier. He was policy advisor in the European parliament, and has been living and working in the Middle East and North Africa during many years.