Even as the International Criminal Court is leveling charges of genocide against Netanyahu, based on overwhelming evidence of perpetrating genocide against Palestinians, in recent days the state government in Berlin, Germany has once again sent the police to assault and arrest students.

Workers are following events in Gaza with horror and are stunned and angry that the German government is supporting the genocide financially and militarily. Workers are likewise shocked and disgusted by the brutality of the force administered by police against students protesting the genocide.

Workers who know the WSWS and the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP, the Socialist Equality Party in Germany) sent video statements condemning this violence in the strongest possible terms and calling on their colleagues to raise their voices as well.

SGP members spoke to workers at the BMW plant in Berlin-Spandau and the Tesla plant in Brandenburg/Grünheide about the background to the genocide and police violence and how to develop the fight against it. The majority of these workers chose to remain anonymous for fear of subjection to repression at work or even losing their jobs because of their stance.

For example, a Palestinian BMW worker reported that he had lost 36 family members in the Gaza Strip since October 7. He emphasized that the German people today were not to blame for the Nazi Holocaust. But they must be responsible for raising their voices today against the genocide of the Palestinians.

Another referred to the humanitarian tragedy caused by the Netanyahu government’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, with the support of the imperialist powers. He could barely restrain his tears as he declared: “The Israeli government can get away with anything. What they have done to the children recently is shameful! I could cry!” He came to Germany from Lebanon 53 years ago. As a child, he experienced for himself what it was like to have to hide in the basement, to be afraid that his own house would be hit by bombs.

“I would like to thank every student who stands up for the truth and fights for the truth. Who takes a beating from the police. They [the federal and Berlin state governments] talk about democracy. But there is not democracy for everyone. They are trying to take the people for fools in order to disarm them.” The German government is trying to portray itself as “peaceful,” but that is false, he said. After all, they supported the “war against Iraq,” “with their reconnaissance planes passing on all their information” to the US military.

A young Tesla worker explained: “So many people are suffering because of war.” He could not bear the idea that his family and friends might one day be affected by it. Therefore, “the only question is how to fight against it!”

A Palestinian Tesla worker reported that he had already been “counted out” by his shift supervisor because he had tried to talk to German colleagues about the genocide. Despite that, he and a dozen colleagues have formed a group that organizes donations for the Gaza Strip and also goes to pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Many workers welcomed the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Netanyahu. However, they at once declared their lack of confidence in the effectiveness of his indictment. Many supported the SGP’s struggle for an international mass movement of workers to stop the genocide and police violence.

Two young workers expressed outrage at the complicity of the ruling federal coalition in the genocide in Gaza and the police brutality against students. They enthusiastically took up the initiative suggested by SGP members to set up an independent Action Committee in their workplace to organize their colleagues and discuss joint actions.

Andy Niklaus, a Berlin city bus driver and member of the SGP, condemned the recent police violence against students at Humboldt University in a statement. In order to defend democratic rights, he explained, workers must organize independently of the pro-capitalist trade unions and build a worldwide socialist movement of the working class against genocide, war and capitalism.