Baerbock’s Middle East mission – between reason of state and humanity
Published: Sunday, Nov 12th 2023, 10:50
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It is a marathon of crisis diplomacy that Annalena Baerbock is completing: United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, West Bank, Israel. The Foreign Minister will meet seven politicians from Friday afternoon until late Saturday. There will also be time for talks with those affected by the terrorist attacks on Israel by Islamist Hamas on October 7. This is the third time in the five weeks since the start of the Gaza war that the Green politician has traveled to the attacked country and the crisis region.
The Gaza war is probably the most difficult challenge Baerbock has faced in her almost two years in office. Perhaps more difficult than the one she faced a few weeks after being sworn in: the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine.
That's how she sometimes feels herself. Because in Ukraine, it is clear that Moscow is the aggressor and Kiev the aggressor. In the Gaza war, it is also clear that the Islamists from Hamas have inflicted massacres and terror on Israel. But the images of dead children, women and men in the Gaza Strip shock many. Millions of Muslims are reacting angrily and there is a threat of a conflagration.
Abu Dhabi, Riad, Ramallah, Tel Aviv
Baerbock meets prime ministers and colleagues virtually every hour. On Friday evening in Abu Dhabi with the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. On Saturday in the Saudi capital Riyadh, she met the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and later her Saudi colleague Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
The meetings are important for Baerbock - Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, like Qatar, are seen as influential potential mediators, for example when it comes to the release of the Hamas hostages or a future peace solution based on a two-state model, two of her main topics.
In Ramallah in the West Bank, Baerbock talks to the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Schtaje. It is intended as a sign of solidarity in the face of many Palestinians who feel abandoned. In the evening, Baerbock meets with three important Israelis - Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, opposition leader Jair Lapid and Benny Gantz, who is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet.
Baerbock has repeatedly stated that Israel's security is the raison d'être of the German state following the Hamas terror attack - which, according to new estimates, left around 1,200 dead and almost 240 displaced. However, the suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip does not leave her indifferent either. The Minister describes the situation as a terrible dilemma.
Key points of the crisis mission:
Humanitarian aid for Palestinians is increased
Germany is increasing humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territories by a further 38 million euros. This means that the Federal Republic will provide over 160 million euros for the Palestinian territories in 2023, says Baerbock. Of the 38 million euros, 25 million will go to the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), 10 million to the World Food Program and just under 3 million to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Warning against the spread of violence
Baerbock says that it is also in Israel's interests for the Palestinians to be able to determine their own future in their own state. "It is therefore crucial that the West Bank is not also gripped by violence and destruction," she warns. The humanitarian pauses are an important first step for the people in Gaza. "These must be expanded further." And more humanitarian access is needed. "What we have now is nowhere near enough."
"Distinguish between civilian and military targets"
In view of the worsening situation of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Baerbock says that they are specially protected by the Geneva Convention in armed conflicts. "Israel, like every other state in the world, must abide by this. Just as Israel, like every other state in the world, has the right to defend itself." If hospitals were used for military operations or as command centers, they could also lose their protected status.
Cohen later announced that he had asked Baerbock to continue supporting his country so that Israel could destroy Hamas and secure the release of the hostages.
Settler violence condemned
Baerbock condemns the increasing violence by radical Israeli settlers "in the strongest terms". Criminal acts and acts of violence against the Palestinian population in the West Bank must be stopped and prosecuted. "Israel has a central responsibility here to protect the Palestinian civilian population. Because settler violence also harms Israel's security." This also sounds like a warning to the Netanyahu government.
Prime Minister Schtaje then called on Germany to take a clearer stance against the war in the Gaza Strip. "Supporting Israel with weapons encourages it to continue its aggression against our people in Gaza," he said.
Meeting with relatives of victims
In Tel Aviv, Baerbock meets with an Israeli of Arab descent and head of an organization that campaigns for reconciliation. His cousin was a paramedic at the peace festival attacked by Hamas and was murdered. She also talks to the son of a Jewish peace activist who was kidnapped.
Baerbock: Herculean task of building bridges
After the talks in Saudi Arabia, German delegation circles reported that there was agreement with the representatives of Qatar and Saudi Arabia that there could only be peace for Palestinians and Israelis with the prospect of a two-state solution. Baerbock later made it clear in two sentences that this would not be a matter of weeks or months: "The bridgeheads on both sides are clearly recognizable. The Herculean task now is to build the bridge between them."
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