⚡️🇺🇳🇩🇪 NEW - On October 7, 2024, then-German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Bundestag that Israel’s “right to self-defense” included striking civilian sites in Gaza.

She said: “Self-defense means not only attacking terrorists but destroying them. When Hamas terrorists hide behind people, behind schools… civilian places lose their protected status.”

Academics—more than 300 of them— demanded she retract the statement, warning it distorted international law and risked greenlighting civilian massacres. Protesters in Berlin condemned it as an invitation to violence.

Under the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law, civilian objects (homes, schools, hospitals) remain protected. They only lose that protection if directly used for military purposes (e.g. as a firing position)—and even then, the attacker must apply distinction, proportionality, and precaution. Civilians inside remain protected at all times. Baerbock’s framing ignored these safeguards, giving the impression of a blanket license to bomb — as Israel has done with thousands of civilian sites over the course of the genocide.

Baerbock, now in her first week as President of the UN General Assembly (80th session, September 2025) was asked whether she would distance herself from those remarks. Her response 👇