AFD: Germany should not be an ally of Israel

Published 24 October 2024 at 07.56

Foreign. Germany must end its “unilateral support” to Israel and also stop arms shipments to the country. This is stated by Alternative for Germany party leader Tino Chrupalla in a speech that arouses debate, Remix News reports.

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The Sweden Democrats and most other right-wing populist movements in the West give almost unconditional support for Israel and its controversial war in the Middle East.

But Alternative for Germany, AFD, now marks that it has a different view on the matter.

In a speech in the German Bundestag, AFD leader Tino Chrupalla called for an end to arms shipments to both Israel and Ukraine. He stressed the need to end what he called Germany's unilateral support for Israel.

Chrupalla said that “exclusive expressions of solidarity” with Israel should end and that continued support with weapons does not lead to détente, but rather exacerbates the conflict . He clarified that while Israel has the right to self-defense, this should not be done with the help of German weapons.

Tino Chrupalla's statements have led to sharp criticism both within and outside AFD, especially as the party has previously supported Israel. In connection with the attacks on 7 October, the AFD parliamentary group expressed full solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people. But opinion polls indicate that many of AFD's voters are skeptical of Israel. A survey by Infratest Dimap showed that only 19 percent of the party's supporters see Israel as a reliable partner for Germany.

Within AFD, not everyone agrees with Chrupalla. According to the newspaper Die Welt, an anonymous member criticizes his speech as “leftist pacifist nonsense” and claims that it goes against the party line, writes Remix News.

AFD's other party leader, Alice Weidel, however, shares Chrupalla's opposition to arms deliveries to Israel and believes that military solutions do not lead to a solution to the conflict.

Jürgen Pohl, AFD politician in Thuringia, has posted a video in which he comments on Tino Chrupalla's speech.

– Something big happened yesterday, notes Pohl and continues:

– West Germans have been taught that Israel has the right to do anything, and that the others must not do anything, and we are supposed to support it.

He notes that the genocide in Gaza must finally come to an end.

– One can ask whether this is really our real raison d'être, continues Jürgen Pohl.

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He is referring to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement in 2013 that Germany exists to support Israel, that Israel is Germany's “raison d'être”.