German president ...Israel visit

German president criticizes settlements on Israel visit

May 31, 2012

BERLIN (JTA) - German President Joachim Gauck raised the issue of Israeli settlements during his official visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 30, Gauck asked the Israeli leader to show readiness to make a compromise on settlement construction.

Gauck also was to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who have maintained that settlement expansion must stop if peace talks are to resume. The Israeli position is that peace talks should resume first, and that the settlement policy would then be on the table.

In a statement issued May 30, the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office applauded Gauck's "strong reaffirmation of German-Jewish relations" but also urged him to affirm his commitment to protecting Israel's security, in light of "an increasingly negative climate toward Israel" in Germany.

Recent polls have shown a decline in popular support for Israel among German citizens, noted Berlin AJC director Deidre Berger.

During his stay, Gauck met with his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres, whom he thanked for the “immeasurable generosity of the gift of trust” that Israel has granted to the Federal Republic of Germany.  In discussions with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann, Gauck again criticized Israel's settlement policy.

The trip included a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and to a German-funded girls' school in the West Bank village of Burin.

Reinhold Robbe, president of the German-Israel Society, who accompanied Gauck on the visit, said in a statement that the president had made his friendship with and support for Israel clear during the visit. "It is not mere lip service, but an important driving force for the president."