Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – Germany is allowing Israel to get away with the killing of six of its citizens in an air attack on a high-rise building in Gaza eight years ago.
The country’s federal prosecutor decided not to open a formal investigation into the 21 July 2014 airstrike on the al-Salam tower in Gaza City that killed Ibrahim Kilani, his wife Taghreed and their five children aged 3 to 11.
Ibrahim and the children – Elias, Yasser, Yasin, Sawsan and Reem – were all German citizens.
They were among more than 2,200 Palestinians, including 550 children, killed during Israel’s 51-day bombardment of Gaza that summer.
“The decision of the German federal prosecutor not to investigate the death of our family members, despite the evidence of war crimes, is politically motivated,” Ramsis Kilani, Ibrahim’s adult son who lives in Germany, told The Electronic Intifada.
“Propagandists often talk about double standards, referring to the treatment of the state of Israel. And there are double standards – in favor of Israel,” Kilani added. “Germany is legally obliged to investigate potential war crimes against its citizens.”
The German federal prosecutor’s decision “stands as emblematic of the double standards applied in cases against powerful actors,” according to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).
