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JERUSALEM – German Chancellor Angela Merkel began Thursday the second day of her two-day visit to Israel with a moving tour of the Yad Vashem Memorial and Museum.
Israel was created three years after the end of the Second World War and the German government paid billions of dollars in reparations to Holocaust survivors and positioned itself as a leader in the fight against terrorism. 39; antisemitism. Under Merkel, it is perhaps the most powerful European ally of Israel.
Accompanied by Yad Vashem's president, Avner Shalev, Merkel took note of the letter that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had sent deployed German soldiers in which he was trying to cheer up by saying that they were "leading war of existence, a war against communism the authors, the Jews. "
She then participated in a commemorative ceremony in honor of the 6 million victims of the Nazi-led Holocaust.
"The Jews in Germany were suffering from hatred and violence that the world knew were impossible," she writes in the memorial's gold book. "What happened later is an unparalleled crime – the dismantling of civilization – the Holocaust."
From there, she went to a different ceremony in Jerusalem where she earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa and answered questions from local students.
Merkel is in Israel for the latest in a series of joint consultations between governments. She is accompanied by a large part of her cabinet, a delegation of large companies and a new head of the fight against anti-Semitism. The visit should focus on economic issues, particularly on innovation, technology and development projects.
This is the seventh such government meeting since Israel and Germany established this tradition 10 years ago.
Merkel met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for a dinner and the two ministers are due to meet again. Their ministers are expected to sign a series of new agreements, including scientific exchanges and joint projects in the areas of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.
Germany is Israel's largest trading partner in Europe and, in recent decades, is perhaps its biggest supporter. But the differences were exacerbated after the election of US President Donald Trump, particularly with regard to Israel's policy towards Iran and the Palestinians.
Netanyahu has been one of Trump's largest international lenders, congratulating him for having withdrawn from the Iranian nuclear deal that Merkel and other world leaders have helped to negotiate into. 2015. Netanyahu said that this deal, which limited the Iranian nuclear program, did not include enough safeguards to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapons capability.
Trump also largely refrained from criticizing Israeli settlements in the West Bank – a frequent complaint from Europe – recognizing Jerusalem as its capital and transferring the US Embassy there. It has also cut funding to the Palestinians and fully blamed the stalled peace talks in the Middle East.
On the other hand, Merkel continued to defend the traditional approach to peacemaking in the Middle East, calling for the creation of a Palestinian state and calling on Israel to refrain from unilateral action to undermine its perspective.
Germany is also among the European countries that have called on Israel to refrain from carrying out its plans to demolish a hamlet in the West Bank supposedly illegally built by Israel.
Israel has offered to resettle some 180 Bedouin Palestinians from Khan al-Ahmar camp a few kilometers away. But Palestinians and their European supporters say the demolition is aimed at displacing the Palestinians in favor of settlement expansion and would be a devastating blow to the hopes of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against the plans and residents are preparing for the move every day. However, Merkel firmly denied that she was considering canceling the trip should it go ahead.
"It's an Israeli decision and our trip is not influenced by that," she told students in Jerusalem. "One may have a divergence of opinions about this, the policy of settlement-delivery, and I have some criticisms to make about it because I believe in a two-state solution, but it does not matter." is a different question. "
Merkel, whose relations with Netanyahu have sometimes been serene, also claims that Israel will be better served if the Iranian nuclear deal is preserved, which runs counter to Netanyahu's request to suspend it and to suspend it. imposition of severe penalties.
"Regarding the fundamental statement, that everything must be done to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, we absolutely disagree," she said. "The question on which we have different points of view is whether the agreement that has been concluded with Iran is a means, for a given period, to prevent the development of nuclear power. "
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