Germany’s UN defeat is a verdict on its complicity in genocide
The UN Security Council
Hebh Jamal writes in Middle East Eye on 14 June 2026:
On 3 June, for the first time, Germany failed to secure a rotating seat on the UN Security Council, falling 23 votes short. The announcement was made by Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s former foreign minister and current president of the UN General Assembly.
The vote was a verdict on Germany’s standing in the world, and even Berlin knows why.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul acknowledged that the country had lost votes over its support for Israel’s war on Gaza, or as he put it, “Germany’s special responsibility for Israel”. He was quick to add that Germany would continue to fulfil that responsibility, despite the international embarrassment.
At a moment when rogue states such as the United States and Israel are waging wars and pursuing coercive campaigns against countries of their choosing – from Iran and Yemen to Lebanon, Palestine and Venezuela – the rest of the world is looking for international partners who can help weather the storm, not fuel it.
Germany has shown that it is willing to undermine international law and bend human rights principles in defence of what many countries increasingly view as indefensible. It has failed to convince the world that it is a beacon of diplomacy. Instead, it has exposed the very historical liabilities it has spent decades trying to overcome.
Backing genocide
Germany is the second-largest supplier of arms to Israel after the US, responsible for roughly 30 percent of Israel’s arms imports between 2019 and 2023. In August, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced he would limit arms deliveries to Israel. But the suspension applied only to new export licences for weapons that could be used in Gaza – not to previously approved exports, which continued to flow. The facade collapsed in November shortly after Germany announced it was lifting even that partial restriction and resuming arms exports.
It is not only the weapons sales that have the world questioning Germany’s international standing, but also the lengths to which it is willing to go to curtail and undermine international law.