Germany's Position on Palestine: Twice on the Wrong Side of History? | Palestine Chronicle by Ilan Pappe |

Germany, that is West Germany until the late 1980s, and the West in general, believed that the road to West Germany's rehabilitation and re-admission to the "civilized nations" had to go through the legitimization of the colonization of Palestine. Thus, within three years after the end of the Second World War, the West was asking the world to grant, simultaneously, legitimacy for the new Germany and for the creation of a Jewish State over much of historical Palestine, as if the two demands were logically and, worse still, morally connected. Hence, Israel became one of the first states to declare that there was a "new Germany", in return for unconditional support for its policies, complemented by huge financial and military aid from West Germany.

After the unification of Germany and the hegemonic role it played since then in the EU foreign policies, the German position on Israel and Palestine became paramount and influenced the continent's overall policy. It is only recently that those of us who are active for, and on behalf of, Palestine noted the slippery road on which Germany - as a state - slides once more onto the wrong side of history.