President Hage G. Geingob has slammed Germany for failing to draw lessons from the genocide it meted out against Namibian people at the turn of the 20th century.
This, in essence, is Namibia’s reaction to Germany’s “shocking support” for the racist Israeli state against innocent civilians in Gaza in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza that has surpassed the 100-day mark.
“President Hage G. Geingob expresses deep concern with the shocking decision communicated by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany yesterday [Friday], 12 January 2024, in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” Geingob said in a strongly-worded statement issued by the Presidency on Saturday.
Coincidently, it was on 12 January 1904 that the Ovaherero people revolted against imperial Germany for the wanton killings, rapes of Ovaherero women, and outright theft of land and cattle.
The same year, on 2 October, ruthless imperial German army commander Lothar von Trotha escalated the violence against the Herero in an extermination order to wipe all the Ovaherero from the face of the earth.
Germany, it appears, has failed to draw lessons from its dark colonial past, Geingob said.
“On Namibian soil, Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions. The German government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil,” he stated.
The President continued: “Worryingly, ignoring the violent deaths of over 23 000 Palestinians in Gaza and various United Nations’ reports disturbingly highlighting the internal displacement of 85% of civilians in Gaza amid acute shortages of food and essential services, the German government has chosen to defend in the International Court of Justice the genocidal and gruesome acts of the Israeli government against innocent civilians in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Not mincing his words, Geingob said: “Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Genocide Convention, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza. Various international organisations, such as Human Rights Watch, have chillingly concluded that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.”
President Geingob reiterated his call made on 31 December 2023 that “no peace-loving human being can ignore the carnage waged against Palestinians in Gaza”.
“In that vein, President Geingob appeals to the German Government to reconsider its untimely decision to intervene as a third party in defence and support of the genocidal acts of Israel before the International Court of Justice,” the Presidency said.
Parties weigh in
Reacting to Geingob’s statement yesterday, Landless People’s Movement second-in-command Henny Seibeb said Germany must first admit and pay reparations for its own genocide in Namibia against the Herero and Nama people, including Damaras and San.
“It’s a racist support that they are offering to the racist Israeli government. In fact, President Hage Geingob must summon the German ambassador and give him his marching orders. Germany’s act shows that there is so much racism in the world, despite the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,” Seibeb added.
Agreeing with him was Popular Democratic Movement lawmaker Maximalliant Katjimune, who called out Germany for its lack of “sensitivity”.
“The German government must be extremely sensitive to these kinds of situations because they have been the cause of two genocides throughout history, one which almost annihilated the Ovaherero and Nama people in Namibia,” he said.
Katjimune continued: “The German government is not in a position to comment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, much less in such an insensitive tone. The German government should rather sit back and join the call for hostilities to end. No one can support the brutal annihilation of civilians in Palestine, who are caught up in the conflict between Hamas and Israel.”
“We further call on the German government to properly atone for the genocide of the Nama and Ovaherero people in Namibia, just as they did with the Jews,” he said.
Analysts
New Era also solicited views from analysts on the matter.
One of them was political scientist Rui Tyitende.
“The President’s statement should be welcomed by all Namibians and global citizens who are against the mass murder, destruction and mayhem inflicted on the citizens of Gaza,” he stated.
Tyitende hastened to indicate that he was not surprised by Germany’s support for Israel.
“We should, however, not be surprised by Germany’s stance, as they are still paying for the holocaust inflicted on the Jews by Nazi Germany. It’s a matter of historical guilt and overcompensation for what the Nazi regime has done to the Jews. They in private might condemn Israel, but cannot do so publicly for fear of being called anti-Semite [hatred of Jews],” he emphatically stated.
For analyst Natjirikasorua Tjirera, the decision by Germany to defend what he termed “a blatant crime of genocide against the Palestinians”, is the clearest manifestation of the proverb that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
“More than a hundred years after committing the first genocide of the 20th century and committing the holocaust, the Germans are now shamelessly supporting a genocide where the perpetrators are recording their genocidal activities. It shows that Germany is simply a murderous state with no regard for human life and international law. The decision by the genocidal German government to intervene in the genocide case at The Hague should be condemned with the disdain it warrants,” the lawyer and political commentator said.
The decision by Germany to support Israel is the clearest sign that the German government does not take genocide seriously, Tjirera added.
“Germany believes that crimes against humanity, including genocide, should be perpetrated, and it’s the clearest sign that they are unapologetic about genocide. The sheer arrogance by the Germans to intervene in defence of a genocidal act, while they are purportedly negotiating claims for genocide with the Namibian government,t is a way of the German government showing the victims of the 1904-1908 genocide the middle finger, literally telling the victims that they can go to hell if they want,” he continued.
Driving his message home, he said: “President Geingob and the Namibian government should know that the people they are negotiating with are unrepentant criminals who are not only hellbent on defending their criminal acts, but who are also shamelessly committed to ensuring that the crime of genocide is perpetrated by the powerful against the powerless.”
He went on to state that Namibia should condemn the action by Germany in the strongest possible terms.
“The Namibian government should also do away with the cloud of secrecy which surrounds the negotiations on the 1904-1908 genocide. It’s clear that the unrepentant criminal that Germany is, need the full force of the Namibian government and all its people.”
Photo: Geingob
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