Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention condemns the denialist German narratives. Condena del Lemkin Instituto para la Prevención del Genocidio a la posición alemana a favor del sionismo en Israel ENG ESP

ENGLISH

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention condemns the persistent efforts by several high-profile German civil society organizations to deny the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to disseminate disinformation and denialist narratives among German political decision-makers.

These efforts must be understood within the broader context of Germany’s uniquely close relationship with Israel, rooted in Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust.

In 2007, former Chancellor Angela Merkel first coined the term Staatsräson in this context, proclaiming Germany’s responsibility for the existence of Israel and its duty to defend it. The term is understood as a guidance principle for German foreign policy and informs parliamentary decisions, arms exports, and diplomatic positioning.

However, it has not found its way into German legislation and therefore entails no legal obligations from German leaders.

The Lemkin Institute of Genocide Prevention calls on public authorities in Germany to immediately halt all active financing, dissemination, and legitimation of genocide denialist propaganda masked as critical expertise.

The level of political access enjoyed by supporters of genocide is deeply concerning. A discourse in which genocide denial has become normalized and strategically deployed not only violates international law but also threatens the very foundations of Germany’s democratic state. An increasing percentage of Germany’s population no longer supports their government’s stance, with about 60 percent of Germans believing that Israel’s actions constitute genocide and two-thirds asserting that the country’s foreign policy should not be guided by a crude Staatsräson, but first and foremost by international law and universal human rights.

The persistent denialist environment in Germany is thus not self-sustaining. However, it is also not being imposed solely through isolated top-down political decisions and pressure. Rather, genocide denial in Germany is actively produced and institutionalized through a network of Israeli-aligned think tanks, civil society actors, and parliamentary access points that together translate genocide denial into legitimate, respectable, policy-relevant “expertise.” 

We further urge the German government to withdraw public funding and end privileged parliamentary access for organizations and initiatives engaged in genocide denial and the systematic discrediting of international legal institutions.

In early December 2025, Berlin hosted the 13th Germany-Israel Strategic Forum, a political conference organized by the European Leadership Network (ELNET), the Forum of Strategic Dialogue, and the German Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS). ELNET is dedicated to strengthening ties between Europe and Israel and has been working tirelessly to facilitate arms deals between Germany and Israel. A travel program for defence policymakers included a visit to view two weapons systems on which they later voted favourably. ELNET presented this as its own lobbying success. More than 51 members of parliament travelled to Israel with ELNET during the last legislative term. No other organisation has financed trips for more members of the Bundestag.

Besides debating Germany’s potential role in institution-building in Gaza and the further intensification of security and defence cooperation, ELNET participants highlighted the importance of (re-)gaining control over public information spaces. Israeli and German attendees agreed that, to win the battle against “visual emotionalization” (diplomacy lingo for “people have feelings about genocidal content”), Israel would have to strengthen its international communication capabilities.

These concerns are not confined to the German political sphere. Rather, they reflect a broader transatlantic strategy aimed at gaining control over relevant narratives and information environments. It thus comes as no surprise that only two months after Netanyahu declared that “[w]e have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefields in which we’re engaged,” with social media and especially TikTok being “the most important ones,” a consortium of anti-Palestinian investors has effectively taken over all U.S. operations of TikTok.

Another network deeply involved in genocide denial and politics is the German-Israeli Society (DIG) (Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft), which receives annual public funds to support its activities, including grants from the Federal Foreign Office amounting to approximately €550,000 for the 2024 financial year. Just one day after commending Germany’s reinstated arms exports to Israel in November 2025, the DIG called on Germany to withdraw all funds from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Citing an Israeli government report, DIG claimed that UNRWA held close ties to Hamas and thus could not be financially supported. However, upon request by the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Israeli authorities failed to bring forward credible evidence for the alleged widespread Hamas infiltration.

In fact, UNRWA undertakes its own security measures to ensure that its work is not politicized and acts decisively where claims are supported by evidence. For example, in response to the allegations that emerged following the terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the highest investigative body in the United Nations, conducted a thorough investigation, which resulted in the dismissal of nine UNRWA employees. By contrast, broader assertions of systemic infiltration or control of UNRWA by Hamas remain unsubstantiated.

The above-named civil society studies and “fact-checks”, while constituting a small part of a wider network of organizations, expose an agenda of narrative construction through which genocide denial in Germany is actively produced and legitimized. This results in a self-reinforcing ecosystem in which Israeli-aligned lobby organizations, think tanks, and civil society actors generate denialist “expertise,” while German political institutions absorb, amplify, and normalize these narratives within parliamentary and policy-making spaces.

In this symbiosis, organizations deliver the pseudo-arguments that German politicians rely on to legitimize an otherwise untenable political stance. In return, these organizations are rewarded with public funding or privileged access to Parliament. By financing, platforming, and politically endorsing actors that discredit UN bodies, ignore well-established legal standards, and engage in genocide denial, Germany has turned its back on an international legal order that was created in large part due to the horrors it produced.

We remind Germany and all its political bodies of their obligations under the Genocide Convention, including the duty to prevent and punish genocide and any forms of complicity.

Above all, we call on the German state to end its complicity in the genocide against Palestinians, including through arms exports to and uncritical diplomatic support for the state committing genocide.

Full declaration here

 

ESPAÑOL

El Instituto Lemkin para la Prevención del Genocidio condena los persistentes esfuerzos de varias organizaciones de alto perfil de la sociedad civil alemana para negar el genocidio en curso en Gaza y difundir desinformación y narrativas negacionistas entre los tomadores de decisiones políticas alemanes.

Estos esfuerzos deben entenderse en el contexto más amplio de la estrecha relación de Alemania con Israel, arraigada en su responsabilidad histórica por el Holocausto.

En 2007, la excanciller Angela Merkel acuñó por primera vez el término «Staatsräson» en este contexto, proclamando la responsabilidad de Alemania por la existencia de Israel y su deber de defenderlo. El término se entiende como un principio rector de la política exterior alemana e informa las decisiones parlamentarias, la exportación de armas y el posicionamiento diplomático. Sin embargo, no se ha incorporado a la legislación alemana y, por lo tanto, no implica obligaciones legales para los líderes alemanes.

El Instituto Lemkin para la Prevención del Genocidio insta a las autoridades públicas alemanas a detener de inmediato toda financiación, difusión y legitimación activa de propaganda negacionista del genocidio, disfrazada de experiencia crítica.

El nivel de acceso político del que gozan quienes apoyan el genocidio es profundamente preocupante. Un discurso en el que la negación del genocidio se ha normalizado y se ha desplegado estratégicamente no solo viola el derecho internacional, sino que también amenaza los cimientos mismos del Estado democrático alemán.

Un porcentaje cada vez mayor de la población alemana ya no apoya la postura de su gobierno: cerca del 60 % de los alemanes cree que las acciones de Israel constituyen genocidio y dos tercios afirman que la política exterior del país no debe guiarse por una simple Staatsräson, sino ante todo por el derecho internacional y los derechos humanos universales.

El persistente ambiente negacionista en Alemania, por lo tanto, no se sostiene por sí solo. Sin embargo, tampoco se impone únicamente mediante decisiones políticas aisladas y presiones desde arriba. Más bien, la negación del genocidio en Alemania se genera e institucionaliza activamente a través de una red de centros de investigación alineados con Israel, actores de la sociedad civil y puntos de acceso parlamentarios que, en conjunto, traducen la negación del genocidio en una "experiencia" legítima, respetable y relevante para la formulación de políticas.

Instamos además al gobierno alemán a retirar la financiación pública y a poner fin al acceso parlamentario privilegiado a las organizaciones e iniciativas dedicadas a la negación del genocidio y al descrédito sistemático de las instituciones jurídicas internacionales.

Recordamos a Alemania y a todos sus organismos políticos sus obligaciones en virtud de la Convención sobre el Genocidio, incluido el deber de prevenir y sancionar el genocidio y cualquier forma de complicidad.

Sobre todo, instamos al Estado alemán a poner fin a su complicidad en el genocidio contra los palestinos, incluyendo la exportación de armas y el apoyo diplomático acrítico al Estado que comete el genocidio. 

Declaración completa aquí