A German left-wing political party has faced a wave of resignations over its dealings with internal pro-Palestine support and subsequent accusations of antisemitism, in the latest episode to embroil Germany over its position on the Israel-Gaza war.
The Left, known in Germany as Die Linke, has seen five MPs from the Berlin branch of the party stand down over the crisis this week, according to German media reports.
Berlin senators Elke Breitenbach and Klaus Lederer, and the former parliamentary group leader Carsten Schatz, as well as Sebastian Scheel and Sebastian Schlüsselburg were the five who resigned.
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023, Germany has made efforts to suppress public support for Palestinian rights, including quashing pro-Palestine solidarity demonstrations, arresting activists and even shutting down a Palestine event co-organised by a local leftwing Jewish group.
The crisis in Die Linke, one of seven parties in Germany’s parliament known as Bundestag, began when a heated debate dominated the party’s annual conference on 11 October. Senior members of the party stormed out after disagreements over a resolution on antisemitism.
The German left has faced controversy over its approach to the war in Gaza, with many pro-Palestine activists reporting a suppression of voices amid false accusations of antisemitism and extremism.
Germany’s history of the Holocaust plays a significant role in the government’s approach to Israel today, with what some observers say is an excessive quashing of support for Palestinian rights.
Much of the German right have attacked supporters of Palestinians with antisemitism smears.
Chancellor Olaf Schloz of the centre-left Social Democratic Party has led a liberal left coalition with the Greens and FDP parties since 2021. His government has continued to send weapons to Israel despite concerns over human rights atrocities in Gaza.
There is also growing support for right-wing parties among the German public. In September, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party became the first far-right party to win a German state election since World War Two.
Die Linke holds 28 seats out of 736 in the Bundestag and is the second-smallest party.
At the Berlin conference on 11 October, Die Linke planned to pass a motion affirming the party’s opposition to antisemitism. But according to the socialist news website Left Voice, the text detailed “unconditional solidarity” with Israel’s far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The text also failed to include detail on the reports of brutal police tactics against left-wing Jews at Palestine rallies in Berlin, while some members of the party wanted to equate the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel with the actions of the Nazi regime, which was rebuked by other members, according to Left Voice.
The motion was repeatedly amended but the party could not come to an agreement which led to Lederer withdrawing the motion and walking out with some 40 others, according to the report.
The rift has exposed the divisions within the minority left party and its inability to take a united stance in solidary with the Palestinian cause.
Writing in Left Voice, German journalist Nathaniel Flakin said that the crisis “will help divide honest socialists who are still within Die Linke from their odious leadership and it might help create a serious revolutionary alternative that is sorely needed in Germany”.
