Germans again mull Israel's right to exist

Germans again mull Israel's right to exist

By Assaf Uni

BERLIN - The state of Israel is facing two strategic threats: an Iranian nuclear bomb and the denial of its right to exist. During a week in which German bishops compared Israel's actions in the territories with the deeds of the Nazis and an international survey determined that Germans have the lowest opinion of Israel in Europe, it is difficult to say which option is more frightening.

That, at least, is the picture that emerged from the annual European-Israel Dialogue held in Berlin this weekend, whose participants included Chancellor Angela Merkel, leading academics and several Israeli diplomats and officials.


The growing delegitimization of Israel in recent years was raised in every session of the conference, organized by the Axel Springer Foundation. This year in particular, Merkel said at the opening session, in light of the threats emanating from Iran, it is important to emphasize that Germany supports Israel and that protecting Israel's right to exist will continue to stand at the centre of Germany's foreign policy. "I regret that I am forced to reiterate this repeatedly," the chancellor added.

As a recent example of a statement undermining Israel's right to exist, speakers at the conference referred to the remarks made by German bishops during a visit to the Palestinian Authority, following a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.

"In the morning, we see the photos of the inhuman Warsaw Ghetto, and this evening we travel to the ghetto in Ramallah; that makes you angry," Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstatt told Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

In a conversation with Haaretz, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called Hanke's remarks "scandalous," adding, "personally, I was angry that no denunciations were voiced from within Germany."

The President of Tel Aviv University, Itamar Rabinovich, said at the conference that since according to the Germans, Israel's right to exist derives from the Holocaust, "the fact that the State of Israel is now behaving 'like the Nazi regime' undermines its right to exist."

However, it appears that the parallel drawn by the bishops, which was repudiated in a letter sent by the leader of Germany's Catholic Church to the board of Yad Vashem, represents the view held by a significant portion of Germans. According to a poll carried out in January by the Bertelsmann Foundation, 30 percent of German residents agree that Israel is doing to the Palestinians "what the Nazis did to the Jews in the Third Reich." A recent poll carried out for the BBC World Service ranked Israel (together with Iran) as the country with the most negative influence on the world. The vast Germany ranked highest among all European countries polled for its negative views of Israel, with 77 percent of respondents reporting "mainly negative" views of Israel.

Some conference attendees said these figures join articles in leading newspapers describing Israel as an "apartheid" state, economic boycotts against the country by churches and labor unions and the academic boycott by European universities in the trend toward questioning Israel's moral right to exist.

"I am amazed anew each time at the fact that the question of Israel's right to exist is still a matter for discussion," the Jewish-German author and journalist Henryk Broder told Haaretz. "What more needs to happen for Israel to be accepted as a state, 60 years after its founding?"

The former head of the Mossad, Ephraim Halevy, believes the legitimacy issue is rooted in Israeli academia. "The source of the problem lies in Israel," Halevy told Haaretz. "The central figures in the debate are in Israeli academia and the issue must be solved within Israel by means of academic confrontation with the 'deniers.'"