As of: March 25, 2024, 7:18 p.m
By: Peter Sieben
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Israel's planned offensive in Rafah is met with criticism.
The SPD politician and Middle East expert Macit Karaahmetoğlu is already seeing signs of war crimes.
Berlin - The domino may have long since fallen and things are taking their course: Despite urgent appeals, Israel's Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sticking to the plan for an offensive in the city of Rafah.
There, in the south of Gaza, more than a million refugees live.
Observers fear further civilian casualties.
War in Israel and Gaza: Criticism of Netanyahu is getting louder
Israel's government is reacting harshly to the heinous terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Some think it is gradually becoming too harsh.
Criticism from the allies is becoming louder, from the USA, but gradually also from Germany.
Due to its history and Germany's special responsibility, this is always a balancing act.
But we now have to talk carefully with Israel if we want to prevent a catastrophe, says SPD member of the Bundestag Macit Karaahmetoğlu.
The lawyer is the deputy legal policy spokesman for his parliamentary group and a Middle East expert.
For him, there is only one solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, he explains in an interview.
Macit Karaahmetoğlu has been a member of the Bundestag for the SPD since 2021.
He is deputy chairman of the German-Turkish parliamentary group in the Bundestag and a member of the AG Migration.
© Peter Sieben
Israel's security is a matter of state.
Can you as a German criticize Israel?
Yes, you have to if you care about Israel.
There is a Turkish saying that goes like this: Friends always speak bitterly.
What does that mean?
If you don't care about someone, say to everything they do: Yes, nice, very good.
But if someone is worth something to you, then talk a lot.
Under President Netanyahu, Israel is in the process of becoming a pariah state that will sooner or later be isolated.
A catastrophe of historic proportions is brewing in Gaza and will probably still be talked about in 50 years.
30,000 people, including 70 percent women and children, have died.
In the south, 1.5 million people live crammed together as refugees, epidemics will break out and perhaps even more people will die.
It must be made clear to Israel that things cannot continue like this.
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SPD member of the Bundestag Macit Karaahmetoğlu in conversation with editor Peter Sieben.
© IPPEN.MEDIA
What do you mean by that?
The way we have dealt with the Palestinians in recent years has not brought any security.
It is a doom-loop.
Many relatives of the 30,000 killed will be open to radicalization by Hamas and will join the terrorists.
Middle East conflict: “There is no security without peace with the Palestinians”
How do you think this vicious circle can be broken?
There is no security without peace with the Palestinians.
We see that the dominance of the Western world continues to decline.
This means that global support for Israel will at least partially disappear and in 20 years the state will find itself in a completely new situation.
Israel must use this window of opportunity to achieve peace; in 20 years it will no longer be possible.
This involves two sides, and the current war is the result of October 7, 2023.
That's right, Hamas' terrible terrorist attack was a crime in which 1,200 innocent people were killed and numerous people were kidnapped.
However, Netanyahu is now using this to ensure his political survival.
For this he needs war and has no regard for losses.
As a lawyer, I can say that there is much to suggest that war crimes were also committed by the Israeli side.
What exactly speaks for it in your opinion?
As an example, I would like to cite the accidental shooting of three Israeli hostages.
I have to imagine it: three people with a white flag who want to surrender.
And then get shot by Israeli security forces.
We only found out about it because they were Israeli hostages.
When you see such an extreme example, you can say from experience that such a shooting was not an isolated incident.
Erdoğan as a mediator in the Israel-Palestine conflict?
Turkish President Erdoğan repeatedly offers himself offensively as a mediator in the conflict.
But apparently they won't let him.
Why is that?
People don't trust him.
He has fallen out with all leaders, especially those of Muslim countries.
I would like to give a simple example: In 2010, activists wanted to break the Gaza blockade with the ship “Mavi Marmara” and bring relief supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Nine of them were killed by Israeli soldiers.
Israel later transferred ten million euros in compensation.
Critics have accused Erdoğan of allowing himself to pay for human lives with money.
He then just replied coldly: Did you ask me when you went there?
Stories like these will not be forgotten.
Many people may eventually flee Gaza to the west.
Do we as a society need to prepare for this?
Yes definitely.
Germany has achieved a lot in the past; we took in a lot of people from Syria back then and now from Ukraine.
But I would also like to quote former Federal President Joachim Gauck: Our hearts are wide, but our possibilities are finite.
That's how I see it too.
That's why we have to make agreements with surrounding countries and, ideally, help refugees in their homeland.