Gomorrah. This is what the Allies called the series of heavy air raids on Hamburg in which around 30,000 people died in 1943. The biblical name suggests what it was about: destruction because of grave sin. Without distinction. In the bombing campaign against Germany, not only military targets were deliberately attacked. After all, the Nazi regime did the same. It should be broken at all costs.
The goal was understandable, but it was not achieved any faster due to the bombing campaign against the civilian population – and this means was already questionable at the time. Even the most serious crimes cannot justify new injustice. It is important to remember this lesson because in the debate about the Middle East war, comparisons are sometimes drawn with that time.
One thing is certain: every state is obliged to do everything possible to prevent or stop genocide. It is a crime against humanity that affects everyone. Never again – that was the noble purpose of the international order that emerged after the end of genocide and world war.
Lessons forgotten at universities
The attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas was undoubtedly genocidal. The statutes and declarations of intent of not only this terrorist group are aimed at the annihilation of Israel. In this respect, the question actually arises as to why their offshoots were not banned in this country much earlier. No extra reason of state is needed for this. This is simply a state task and obligation.
What is still astonishing is how these lessons from the Nazi era were even forgotten at universities. Wanting to wipe out a people, a state is a crime, regardless of what that state may have committed and what it is based on.
Don't answer crime with crime
But another lesson is that crime should not be answered with crime. Regardless of the extent of the injustice. This is also difficult to take to heart in a time when barbaric torture is being filmed and shown around for propaganda purposes. There is probably a difference here from the Nazi era, because the Holocaust was announced early on, but not made public. There are pictures, but if the atrocities had been filmed and distributed on a larger scale – how would Germany have dealt with them?
It is a balancing act to remind a victim of genocide that international law applies to everyone without distinction. After all, this is a given. The fact that the warning is sometimes necessary and is given again and again, especially from the American side, characterizes the Middle East conflict in its most recent continuation. Israel makes it clear every day that, unlike many of its neighbors, as a state it does not want to wipe out anyone or anything, but rather cannot avoid the deaths of civilians as an unavoidable consequence of the attacks on the terrorists who are holed up behind children and under hospitals Buying that attacks Israel within the framework of its guaranteed right to self-defense.
Genocidal fantasies and shots despite the white flag
But there was initially an announcement that the Gaza Strip would be cut off from food and electricity, and there was an admission by a (thus later suspended) minister that a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the area. This is not far from genocidal fantasies. The fact that three bare-chested men waving a white “flag” were shot in a recent battle is not “tragic,” as Prime Minister Netanyahu says, because they were three Hamas hostages, as it soon became clear. In an armed conflict, no one who obviously surrenders should be killed – especially not outside of a war. A Hamas leader who surrenders his arms must be brought to justice.
That is precisely the difference between unjust regimes and constitutional states, between terrorist gangs and democratically and legally bound armed forces. This is also a reason why Israel and not Hamas is under special observation and, in addition to emphasizing the right to self-defense, compliance with international humanitarian law is repeatedly urged, even by its most loyal allies.
However, you have to call a spade a spade, especially in the United Nations. The genocide in theory and practice, of which Hamas is only an example, must not be pushed into the background. Otherwise the UN will betray itself. Human rights concern everyone. Israel knows this too. Even if an aggressor or a terrorist regime can be eliminated, the peoples remain and have to live with one another. This is also an old teaching.
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