(CN) — In March 2008, then-Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first German leader to deliver a speech to the Knesset, Israel's Parliament. In it, she apologized for Nazi Germany's slaughter of 6 million Jews and vowed her country would always stand by Israel's side.
During that historic address, she uttered a German term that's now at the heart of an explosive polemic engulfing Germany amid accusations that it's backing Israel even as its Jewish ally carries out what many are calling ethnic cleansing and even genocide against Palestinians.
In that speech, Merkel said Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust meant that Israel's security was part of Germany's Staatsräson — a term that can be translated as raison d'etat, or part of its reason to exist as a state.
Since then, German political parties of all stripes, even the far-left Die Linke and far-right Alternative für Deutschland, have agreed to make unequivocal support for Israel and Jews a state policy, though what that means in practical terms remains murky. It's not written in law and it doesn't mean that German troops will be sent to fight on Israeli soil.
Still, this pro-Israeli and pro-Jewish stance is seen as a chief pillar in Germany's post-Cold War self-understanding as a democratic standard-bearer, model of atonement and moral leader in Europe.
“It is not inscribed in law, but it's kind of paralegal in the sense that this is our self-understanding as a nation,” said Sina Arnold, a scholar at the Technical University of Berlin's Center for Research on Antisemitism.
“Support for Israel is a core element of the German political culture of the past couple of decades,” said Ben Gidley, an expert on antisemitism and Israel at Birkbeck, University of London.
“That's one of the ways as a national culture it has dealt with its Holocaust guilt," Gidley said. "The dominant position in Germany is that in order to pay back for the Holocaust, we need to stand by Israel whenever.”
And Germany's received lofty praise for making Holocaust remembrance part of its national consciousness — a process that accelerated in the 1990s as Germany sought to reassure the world that it would not once again become a threat following reunification.
Today, Germany is commonly held up as a paragon for other countries struggling to come to grips with past horrors, such as slavery in the United States.
Across Germany, there are Holocaust monuments and museums and academic centers dedicated to the study of antisemitism. Holocaust denial and displaying Nazi symbols are illegal. Young Germans are required to learn about the horrors committed by their ancestors during the Third Reich and school trips to former concentration camps are common.
Since Merkel's speech, Germany has institutionalized the fight against antisemitism.
In 2017, Germany was one of the first governments to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism that views most forms of anti-Zionism as antisemitic. Critics argue this wrongly conflates opposition to Israeli policies to antisemitism.
Then in 2018, Germany established a federal commissioner's office to root out antisemitism and foster Jewish life in Germany.
The next year, the German Bundestag approved a resolution condemning as antisemitic the so-called “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” campaign against Israel. It also forbade state funds from going to organizations and individuals deemed to support the movement. Several German cities and states adopted similar resolutions.
So, it was only logical that immediately following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, Germany's pro-Jewish policies kicked into high gear.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz quickly offered Israel military aid and dismissed calls for a cease-fire. Pro-Palestinian marches in Germany were banned, with police labeling them illegal because they showed support for Hamas. The Palestinian militant group is a banned terrorist organization in the European Union.