Conflicts are currently holding the world in suspense. Our team is made up of people with different stories and backgrounds. Some of us have Jewish, Iranian, or Ukrainian roots. What happens around the world affects us personally. It triggers fear. Grief. Anger. It was important to us to give these experiences space.
That is why we deliberately sat down together as a team to talk – about political realities, about how we are personally affected, and about what we need to say, even when it is uncomfortable. We see how hard it is to take a stand without rushing to judgment.
Political spaces emerge wherever people talk to one another. Including at work. This text came out of exactly such a space, as the collective result of our team.
Our text is not directed against peoples, but against those who hold political power and bear responsibility. Our solidarity is with people – not with the machinery of power.
We cannot hope to achieve a complete balance of all perspectives and historical responsibilities in the context of the current horrors here. Our solidarity is with all people who suffer under authoritarian, violent, or occupying policies – regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation.
We feel the fear of an escalating spiral of violence. Images of the enemy are hardening. Violence from outside through attacks fuels the legitimization of more violence inward against a country's own population. Nor do hopes for regime change alter the current worsening of the suffering of the civilian population in Iran. Millions of Palestinians suffer from blockade, displacement, and a lack of prospects – and from Hamas, which in turn deliberately commits terror against Israeli civilians and is still holding hostages. The suffering of civilians in Ukraine continues as a result of Putin's war of aggression.
The attacks hit residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure – places where not combatants but people in need of protection live. Even when infrastructure is attacked, the civilian population needs adequate time to respond.
Can a city of 15 million like Tehran be evacuated within 24 hours? Of course not! Anyone who believes that this made civilian casualties avoidable is ignoring the reality of urban complexity – or knowingly accepting those casualties. Invoking such a warning after the fact is not responsible; it is hypocritical.
We need a stable world. Armed conflicts waged recklessly destroy years of building trust and reconciliation. Europe has a duty to work toward reconciliation between peoples. It only ever takes a small fire to destroy the achievements of entire decades.
We see human rights and international law being broken. We see morality and ethics being delegated to weapons systems. Heavily armed AI systems such as the Lavender targeting system are being deployed, defining how many “civilian casualties” are morally acceptable for one “target” so that missiles can be launched automatically. The escalation spiral of military decisions is being parameterized. The use of new technologies is undermining the standards of international law on a whole new level.
And Europe looks on. The disturbing news, images, and cries for help from people on the ground have been a sad part of everyday life for years.
Every attempt to address the issue is a political minefield. The conflicts, their causes, and their entanglements are highly complex, historically far-reaching, emotionally charged, and also deeply rooted in the past of European countries.
- The dignity of every human being is inviolable.
- Civilians must never become the target of military violence.
- No goal, no claim, no faith justifies attacking innocent people.
- We stand for the inviolability of internationally recognized state borders – in Ukraine as well as in Israel, Palestine, and beyond.
We condemn all violence against civilians in the strongest possible terms.
- We call on all parties to the war to stop hostilities immediately.
- We demand an immediate end to all war crimes directed against the civilian population.
- We call on all parties to renounce, immediately and verifiably, the threat and use of nuclear weapons.
- In particular, we call on Prime Minister Netanyahu, Supreme Leader Khamenei, and President Putin to end the killing and the crimes against the civilian population.
- We demand that international aid organizations not be obstructed, that aid corridors remain open, and that the civilian population be guaranteed unrestricted access to food, water, medical care, electricity, and means of communication.
- We call on Europe to act.
For Germany, too, this means working to ensure that war crimes are clearly investigated and named. It means working with Europe to ensure that no state can disregard international law simply because of its military superiority. Punitive measures against the aggressor and support measures for the country under attack must be taken immediately and in earnest. All with the aim of taking the necessary steps that lead to an immediate end to the shelling.
It also means not watering down our values when approving arms exports in times of economic crisis – even when there is money to be made from war economies and reconstruction, for example in Egypt, Greece, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, or Turkey, through which we have boosted our economic output in recent years.
It means watching our words. When the German Chancellor speaks of “the dirty work Israel is doing for the West,” he trivializes the crimes against the civilian population in a macabre way. It ignores how, for years, courageous civilians in Iran have taken to the streets for change at the risk of their lives and called on Germany, among others, not to look away. It ignores how Germany maintained trade relations with the Iranian regime for years. When Donald Trump says that “the boys sometimes have to fight things out”, he, too, obscures the fact that it is not “the boys” – in the sense of those in power – who innocently lose their lives in the fighting.
It means remembering the values on which our society was founded after the horrors of World War II: the protection of people, their dignity, their health, and their future. These values are not merely ideals; they are firmly anchored in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in international law. The preamble to the Declaration warns of the fatal consequences of disregarding them by recalling that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts” and that “it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law”. To not only proclaim these rights but also protect them effectively, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was created, whose task is to prosecute crimes against humanity across borders and from a neutral position.
It means respecting the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif. It is not acceptable to water them down, as Armin Laschet, chair of the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee, did when he said about Netanyahu on ZDF on May 25, 2025: “Should he come to any conference, he will not be arrested on German soil.” We must not presume to stand above international law and thereby throw its value overboard.
We demand that Germany and Europe stand up for upholding human rights and international law. We hope that armed violence and oppression will end. Europe must stand up for the right to free elections with international observation. Whatever the country, the population's right to self-determination over its future political order applies.
Inspired by Immanuel Kant's essay “Toward Perpetual Peace,” we call for an immediate end to violence against civilians and the consistent application of international law. Kant's vision of a just and lasting peace obliges all states – regardless of political systems or geostrategic interests – to respect human dignity, to cooperate under the rule of law, and to reject war as an instrument of policy.
Wars and deliberate violence against civilians are not means of self-defense but crimes that must be prosecuted – by independent international courts and by the voice of the global community.
We appeal to governments, the international community, and all people: let us follow the moral compass we have anchored in human rights – one founded on law instead of violence, freedom instead of fear, and peace instead of destruction.
