Press release
Berlin, December 30, 2008

Since Israel gave up all of Gaza in 2005 thousands of rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel from Gaza. On December 19 Hamas declared the end of the „ceasefire“ and intensified its attacks. In light of the attacks Israel is forced to protect its citizens with military means.

Germany is also involved in this conflict – the Federal Republic of Germany is the most important Western trading partner of the Islamic Republic of Iran, that is financing Hamas and other Islamist terror organizations, trains and arms them.  

The result of the demand for ceasefire and a political equidistance will be the strengthening of the Hamas and the Islamist forces in the Middle East. The declared aim of the Hamas is the destruction of Israel. Hamas opposes negotiations with Israel, the covenantof the Hamas comprises explicit calls to kill Jews. The covenant is openly antisemitic – the fight against Israel is defined to be the first step in a worldwide anti-Jewish war.

The postulation to negotiate with the Hamas regardless whether the group accepts Israel’s right to exist is dangerous because it ignores the antisemitism and rewards the strategy of terror, finally legitimizes it. Rolf Mützenich (SPD), head of the Near and Middle East study group and member of parliament calledfor talks with the Hamas. Mützenich is also a member of the head of the German-Iranian society.

Negotiations with the Hamas would reward their military strategy. This would be a negative signal for the whole Middle East and would strengthen Islamist forces, which stand for terror against their own population and against Israel. Such negotiations would weaken democratic and emancipatory forces in the region.

Hamas has complete control over the Gaza strip and its population. Hamas is not interested in improving the situation which is catastrophically from a social point of view. Hamas uses civilians as human shields, uses violence against its political opponents and indoctrinates children with Islamist and antisemitic ideology. The London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported on 24 December, that the Gaza Parliament passed a bill that allows whipping for offending religious beliefs or hanging as a standard punitive, that will for instance be used against those who demoralize the Palestinian people to any of its resistance movements.

The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin demands from the German Government a definite positioning against Islamist forces in the Middle East. Important are unilateral sanctions against the Iranian regime, because Iran supports Islamist and terrorist groups like no other country; the isolation of the Hamas, and a ban of the Hezbollah and similar organizations in Germany. We call for solidarity with everybody who is threatened by Islamist terror – in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.