Gaza Bomb in German Politics

Following the incidents between Hamas and Israel, Israel launched an attack on Gaza on 7 October 2023.

As the attacks on Gaza entered the 9th month, the deaths of many civilians, including women and children, are being protested by different groups in European countries.

In Germany, the Gaza attacks and the related protests led to the dismissal of Prof. Dr. Sabine Döring, the Undersecretary of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research responsible for higher education, by the Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger.

Prof. Dr Sabine Döring is a well-known academic. She studied philosophy, German studies, linguistics and psychology at the Georg August University in Göttingen. In 1997 she received her doctorate with the thesis Ästhetische Erfahrung als Erkenntnis des Ethischen (Aesthetic experience as the realisation of the ethical). He held the chair of philosophy at the University of Tübingen.

It is a contradiction that an academic with a PhD in the realisation of the ethical should be dismissed as Undersecretary of the Ministry on charges of attempting unethical behaviour against academics.

Germany, on the other hand, is experiencing a contradiction as a country in such cases.

The Treaty of Versailles, which was imposed on Germany, the loser of the First World War, by the victorious states, contained severe punitive conditions.  After the war Germany lost all its colonies and 13 per cent of its territory on the European continent. Twelve per cent of Germany's population lived in these territories and 48 per cent of its total iron production and a significant percentage of its coal production were lost. The heavy war indemnity that the country was required to pay by the peace treaty, the occupation of an important industrial region of the country by France when the payment of the war indemnity failed, the hyperinflation brought about by the deteriorating economy, the prohibition of the production of heavy weapons and motorised aircraft in the country and the limitation of the number of the country's armed forces led to the cooling of the public against the regime that came to power after the exile of Emperor Wilhelm II to the Netherlands and went down in history as the Weimar Republic, which introduced the country to the Republican regime.

Adolf Hitler, who made good use of the humiliating attitude of the victorious states towards Germany and the severe economic depression as a propaganda element, came to power in January 1933 with the Nazi party (National Sozialistische Partei- National Socialist Party), which also had the word Socialist in its name, using the opportunities provided to him by the democracy of the Weimar Republic. The new Chancellor (Kanzler - Prime Minister) of Germany was now Adolf Hitler.

The members of the Jewish community, who had been very influential in Germany for centuries until the Hitler regime, and who held the corners of the economy, banking, trade, industry, academia and the scientific world, became the favourite targets of Hitler and his party both during and after his rise to power. The process of segregating Jews from society began with their dismissal from civil service positions in state institutions and academic institutions. It continued with the exclusion of Jewish students from German schools, attacks on Jewish businesses and places of worship, the obligation for Jews to wear the six-pointed Star of David, and the sending of Jews to labour and concentration camps. Between 1941 and 1945, these practices included the murder of Jews in the so-called Final Solution. In 1945, the states that succeeded in defeating Germany in the Second World War after the First World War, especially the USA, sought to punish Germany for the practices of Hitler and the Nazi Party against the Jews. Many people were executed on the grounds that they were guilty, and it was declared illegal in Germany to be anti-Semitic and to claim that there was no genocide against Jews. Therefore, because of the actions of Hitler and the Nazi Party, Jews currently enjoy a kind of legal immunity in Germany.  Moreover, Hitler's actions are one of the reasons for the establishment of the state of Israel, which is carrying out the attacks on Gaza today, and the migration of millions of Jews to that region. In other words, Germany itself is at the root of today's events.

It is a contradiction that Jews who were subjected to Hitler's sanctions, encouraged to leave the country or subjected to practices including death, do the same to the Palestinians today. On the other hand, Germany has laws against anti-Semitism, that is, against anti-Semitism. Therefore, even condemning Israel's treatment of the Palestinians can result in accusations of anti-Semitism.

You may be wondering about the process that resulted in the dismissal of the Federal Minister of Education and Research.

 In Berlin, the capital of Germany, a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the Free University of Berlin in protest against Israel's killing of many civilians in its attacks on Gaza. The police forcibly removed the occupying group from the university. Following this incident, more than a hundred academics from Berlin universities issued a statement expressing their support for the group protesting against the Gaza aggression and condemning the harsh police intervention. "It still amazes me how this letter unilaterally ignores the terror of Hamas," said Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, in a statement. "The letter makes sweeping demands that crimes committed at universities should not be prosecuted, while at the same time anti-Semitic incitement and violent attacks on Jewish citizens can be observed," she said. "This is a legitimate part of debate and freedom of opinion. It is just as natural to have a different opinion."

After this incident, German journalists uncovered an e-mail correspondence within the ministry in which the Undersecretary of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Prof. Dr. Sabine Döring, was working to cut off academic support to academics who published a statement in support of Palestinian protesters.

Germany in turmoil

In Germany, the coalition government chaired by Social Democratic Party SPD leader Olaf Scholz includes ministers from the Social Democratic Party SPD, the Free Democratic Party FDP and the Green Party. Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, belongs to the Free Democratic Party.

She said that the study, which turned out to have been initiated by the undersecretary in the ministry, contradicted the principles of academic freedom. "Academic freedom is a precious asset and is rightly protected under constitutional law. The impression created would "permanently damage" the trust of scientists in the Federal Ministry of Education. The funding of science "must be based on scientific criteria and not on political ideology", he said.

The SPD, the senior coalition partner, supported the minister and said that academic freedom could not be negotiated.

However, some trade union representatives and spokespersons for the opposition CDU/CSU parties are of the opinion that the minister should also resign. The CDU/CSU spokesman said: "Federal Minister Stark-Watzinger is right. It was necessary to reorganise the ministry's staff. She must now take this step herself. Because the minister's criticism of the letter written by the lecturers has also influenced the actions of the ministry staff."