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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how the German state policy Staatsräson (reason of state), which ties the security of Israel to that of Germany, is used to suppress Palestinian life. It presents an example of political violence as well as tactics of resistance within the Palestinian community.

Paper long abstract

Since the start of the most recent Israeli genocide in Palestine in October 2023, different actors in Germany, including the federal government, public institutions, and average citizens, have rallied to show unwavering support to Israel. This paper presents an anthropological inquiry into the manifestation of the state policy Staatsräson (reason of state), which ties Israel's security to Germany's. Many scholars question whether the policy is the primary catalyst behind this growing support in the past few decades. The ethnographic examples here show how it is used to bend laws and suspend democratic values to suppress an anti-colonial struggle. As Palestinians and those who stand in solidarity take to the streets demanding justice and liberation, the German state deploys tactics of political and often literal violence, embedded within an apparatus of structural racism towards Palestinian and Arabs/Muslim populations.

Staatsräson is not a written law, nor does it come with instructions for its application. However, it operates as a fundamental norm and a mechanism of Symbolic Power (Bourdieu 1992). This paper engages with the topic of this panel as it exposes a moment in a rather continuous stream of structural racism in a liberal European democracy. Additionally, it theorises that community solidarity extends the same anti-colonial struggle for justice within historic Palestine. The material presented is collected during a 14-month fieldwork between 2025 and 2026. As part of a doctoral studies project, it examines the impact of socio-political conditions and the impossibility of home-ing among Palestinians living in Germany.