Hanno Hauenstein

Berlin, Germany

Writer, Journalist and Critic at Freelance

independent journalist | bylines @guardian @artnet @intercept etc – https://t.co/THAxv8PFHa

Articles

Muhammad Shehada: Israel’s ‘Aid Plan’ for Gaza Is a Blueprint for Displacement

1 week ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

As starvation deepens in Gaza, Israel is rolling out a new aid distribution plan. Far from alleviating the suffering of millions, the plan dismantles the existing aid system, sidelines the UN and other humanitarian actors, and funnels food through military checkpoints and dubious private contractors. Just yesterday, chaos broke out at one of the distribution center, with Israeli forces reportedly opening fire on starving civilians.
Germany trumpets its reckoning with its Nazi past – except when it’s inconvenient

2 weeks ago | msn.com | Hanno Hauenstein

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Warum ich erst zögerte, aber inzwischen von einem Völkermord in Gaza spreche

3 weeks ago | freitag.de | Hanno Hauenstein

Der Begriff Genozid bleibt in Deutschland hochumstritten, aus Gründen. Auch unser Autor hat einige Zeit mit sich gerungen, ob er von Völkermord sprechen soll – und wirft den deutschen Medien nun Versagen vor Von Vielleicht haben zögerliche Liberale doch recht: Vielleicht macht es wirklich keinen so großen Unterschied, ob wir Israels Angriff auf Gaza einen Völkermord nennen. Nicht, weil es keiner wäre – im Gegenteil.
Germany Is Choosing Complicity

3 weeks ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

Today, on May 12, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomes Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Berlin. The occasion: 60 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel. Tomorrow, the two will travel to Israel, where Steinmeier is set to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – against whom the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has requested an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Germany's New Government Is Scarier Than You Think

1 month ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

Germany has a new government. Friedrich Merz was just confirmed as the country’s 10th postwar chancellor – though only narrowly. The confirmation followed an embarrassing first-round failure in the Bundestag; nearly 20 coalition MPs withheld their votes in a secret ballot. Merz – a former lobbyist and the CDU’s right-wing counterpoint to Angela Merkel’s open-border legacy – barely scraped through on the second attempt, securing 325 votes (just nine above the needed minimum).
Why Germany Won’t Call It Genocide

1 month ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

This is an edited version of an essay originally published in the German print edition of Jacobin. You can read the German piece online here. At this point, there can be little doubt: after a year and a half of the most extreme military offensive of the 21st century, evidence is mounting that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza – with German support.
Lorenz A. and Germany’s Deadly Pattern of Racist Policing

1 month ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

On Easter Sunday, 21-year-old Lorenz A. was shot and killed by police in Oldenburg. Lorenz, a young Black man, had been denied entry to a local nightclub – allegedly because of his clothing. In the confrontation that followed with the club’s security, he used pepper spray and fled the scene. According to the Oldenburg public prosecutor, Lorenz used pepper spray again during a confrontation with police officers shortly afterward. The prosecutor also claims that he threatened his pursuers with a knife.
Proteste gegen Hamas in Gaza

1 month ago | medico.de | Hanno Hauenstein

Ende März versammelten sich im Norden Gazas Hunderte Menschen zu öffentlichen Protesten. Die Demonstrierenden warfen der De-Facto-Regierung Korruption und Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber den zivilen Opfern der israelischen Militäroffensive vor. Auslöser der Protestwelle war das Scheitern der Waffenruhe – und Israels Wiederaufnahme von Luftangriffen, bei denen erneut Hunderte Zivilist:innen getötet worden waren.
From Genocide to Greenwashing: Germany’s Legacy in Namibia

1 month ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

A few months ago, medico international organized a journalist trip to Namibia. The organization supports the representative bodies of the Ovaherero (OTA) and Nama (NTLA), whose communities continue to fight for justice for Germany’s colonial genocide. On the ground, I spoke with descendants of survivors, visited medico’s local partners, and took a closer look at neocolonial ventures – like the German-backed push for green hydrogen.
“They Were Shot in the Head”: What Feroze Sidhwa Saw in Gaza

1 month ago | hannohauenstein.substack.com | Hanno Hauenstein

On the night of March 23, 2025, a 16-year-old boy named Ibrahim was killed by an Israeli airstrike in his hospital bed at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He was recovering from surgery. “I never expected to have a patient killed in his hospital bed,” said Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, the trauma surgeon who operated on him, in a recent conversation with +972 Magazine. Sidhwa, a critical care surgeon from California, returned to Gaza for his second volunteer mission this spring.