Germany debated on Sunday whether it should stop aid to Palestinians following the biggest attack on Israel in years by Palestinian group Hamas, with the government saying it was reviewing the way it spent development funds in the region.
Development Minister Svenja Schulze of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats said the government had always been careful to check that the money was only used for peaceful ends. “But these attacks on Israel mark a terrible fracture,” she said. “We will now review our entire engagement for the Palestinian territories.”
Germany would discuss with Israel how development projects in the region could best be served, and coordinate with international partners, said the minister.
Israeli strikes on Gaza continued after overnight attacks
Some German lawmakers, from the opposition conservatives in particular, called for an end to the aid.
“All of Europe, all 27 states, must now say: we need a new start and we will no longer finance terrorists,” said Armin Laschet, chancellor candidate for the conservatives at the last federal election, calling for an end to EU cooperation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank.
But pushback came from the opposition Left party and the Greens, junior partner in the federal coalition.
Hamas, and not all Palestinians, were responsible for the attack, said Gregor Gysi, a prominent member of the Left party.
The commissioner for humanitarian assistance Luise Amtsberg in the Greens-run foreign ministry said that the government did not finance the Palestinian Authority but rather people who were suffering.
“In 2023 the foreign ministry distributed 72 million euros of humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories through international organisations and the United Nations,” she said. “These funds above all gave suffering people in the Palestinian territories access to food provisions and health care.”
