Merkel tours Israel’s Holocaust museum
JERUSALEM: German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off the second day of her twoday visit to Israel yesterday with an emotional tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum.
Israel was established three years after the end of World War II, and the German government has paid billions in reparations to Holocaust survivors and positioned itself as a leader in combatting anti-Semitism. Under Ms Merkel, it has been perhaps Israel’s strongest European ally.
Accompanied by Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, Ms Merkel participated in a memorial ceremony for the 6 million victims of the Nazi-led Holocaust.
“The Jews in Germany suffered from hatred and violence that the world did not know was possible,” she wrote in the memorial’s guest book. “What came later is a crime that has no equal — the teardown of civilization — the Holocaust.”
From there, she went to a different ceremony in Jerusalem where she was granted an honorary doctorate from Haifa University and answered questions from local students.
Ms Merkel is in Israel for the latest in a series of joint government consultations. She is accompanied by much of her Cabinet, a large business delegation and a new official in charge of combatting anti-Semitism. The visit is expected to focus on economic issues, with an emphasis on innovation, technology and development projects.
It’s the seventh such joint government meeting since Israel and Germany established the tradition a decade ago.
Ms Merkel met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner on Wednesday night and the two are scheduled to meet again, with their ministers set to sign a series of new agreements, including scientific exchanges and joint projects in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.
Germany is Israel’s largest trading partner in Europe and for the past few decades has been perhaps its staunchest supporter. But differences have been exacerbated following the election of US President Donald Trump, particularly regarding Israel’s policies toward Iran and the Palestinians.
Mr Netanyahu has been one of Mr Trump’s biggest international backers, lauding him for pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal that Ms Merkel and other world leaders helped negotiate in 2015. Mr Netanyahu says the deal, which curbed Iran’s nuclear programme, does not include enough safeguards to.
Mr Trump also has largely refrained from criticising Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank — a frequent European complaint — recognised Jerusalem as its capital and moved the US Embassy there. He also has cut funding to the Palestinians and fully pinned the blame for stalled Mideast peace talks on them.
In contrast, Ms Merkel has continued to champion the traditional approach to Middle East peacemaking, calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state and for Israel to refrain from unilateral steps to undermine its prospect. Germany has also been among the European countries calling on Israel to refrain from carrying out its plans to demolish a West Bank hamlet that Israel says was illegally built. Ms Merkel, whose rapport with Mr Netanyahu has been cordial and even cool at times, also maintains that Israel will be best served by keeping the Iranian nuclear deal intact.