DOI
The relationship between the Zionist movement, which resulted in the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, and native Arabs in Palestine is conflictual and contradictory and has been so since before the current war in Gaza and Hamas’s attack on Israel. This research report brings together several texts authored by critical Israeli, Palestinian and international intellectuals. These texts analyse the historical and current relationship between Palestine, Zionism, and Israel from the last third of the 19th century onward, on the one hand, and the special involvement of Germany in this constellation as a result of the Shoah, on the other. Some of these texts make a historical argument that the Shoah provided additional impetus to the Zionist nation-state idea and the international support for it. Nevertheless, Germany has a responsibility not only towards a democratic Israel, but also towards a democratic Palestinian state (particularly given the problem of the “victim of the victim”). These texts raise a valuable series of points, not least in this regard. The analysis will, however, remain incomplete until it is demonstrated why a Palestinian state was not also founded in 1948 (what were the interests on what sides, including the reactionary Arab states?). It is argued that for peace to be viable, critical intellectuals and emancipatory movements on both sides need to commit to a two-state solution supported by an international alliance.