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Wagenknecht at the lectern: The demonstration was held under the motto "No to wars"
Photo: Christian Ditsch / epd / IMAGO
Former left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht has sharply criticized the course of the Israeli and German governments in the Gaza war. "We Germans in particular have a special responsibility for Jewish life," Wagenknecht said on Saturday at a peace demonstration in Berlin. "And we have a responsibility to defend Israel's right to exist without ifs and buts." But this responsibility "does not oblige us to gloss over and support the Netanyahu government's reckless warfare as self-defense."
This escalation of the war does not protect Jewish life, it endangers Jewish life. "It is absurd to believe that bombs weaken Islamist terror. They strengthen him." Wagenknecht recalled the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Haven't we learned anything from all the wars of the past few years?"
"Horrific massacres by Islamist Hamas"
Earlier, Wagenknecht said: "On October 7, we were all horrified and shocked by the terrible massacres of the Islamist Hamas, by the murders of innocent civilians, women and children." Nothing, no injustice in this world, justifies such crimes. But she thinks "we should be just as shocked and just as horrified by the ruthless bombardment in the Gaza Strip."
According to the police, there were about 5000,20 participants at the demonstration in Berlin, the organizers spoke of 000,10. After the rally at the Brandenburg Gate, the participants wanted to march through the government district.
Wagenknecht, who is currently founding a new party, had already spoken about the Ukraine war at the Brandenburg Gate in February, together with women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer. The call for the demonstration is supported by left-wing politicians, trade unionists and some artists.
mamk/dpa