The Israeli and German presidents hailed the enduring friendship between their countries on Monday, 60 years after the launch of bilateral relations, but also acknowledged differences over the war in Gaza.
Israel’s president, Issac Herzog, was visiting Berlin before he and the German head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, were due to tour Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday along with their wives.
Steinmeier, receiving Herzog with full honours at Bellevue Palace, said that the establishment of relations in 1965 was “a gift that we Germans could not have expected after the horrors of the Second World War”.
Standing alongside him at a joint press conference, Herzog said that the “process of dialogue and reconciliation” between the two nations over the past six decades was “a source of hope”.
Herzog praised Germany’s contribution to Israel’s security and prosperity and its steadfast backing after the Hamas attack in Israel of October 7, 2023, a stance which he said had demonstrated “moral clarity”.
Steinmeier stressed that Israel must “defend itself against Islamist terrorism” but also said he feared that “the suffering experienced by the people in Gaza is deepening the divide, and that worries me, like many others”.
He added that “everything must be done to prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.
Later on Monday, the two heads of state were meeting participants in bilateral youth exchanges and visiting a memorial at a Berlin railway station from which the Nazis sent trains to concentration camps.
The two presidents were on Tuesday to embark on their unprecedented joint tour of Israel to highlight a friendship that a grateful Berlin often labels “a miracle”, and meet young people, politicians and kibbutz residents.
While Berlin, now led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, says support for Israel remains a core principle, relations have come under strain in recent years, over the Gaza war and other issues.
‘Humanitarian obligations’
Israel’s devastating war in Gaza following the October 7 attack has sparked charges from many countries and rights groups that its response has been disproportionate.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on May 12 the Israeli military offensive on the besieged territory had killed at least 52,862 people there, most of them civilians.
The International Criminal Court last year issued warrants for alleged war crimes for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
Germany meanwhile has seen the surge of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose leading figures have questioned the country’s “remembrance culture” to atone for Nazi crimes.
Germany has also voiced deep concern about a rise in anti-Semitism, be it from the far right, the far left or immigrants from Arab and Muslim countries.
As the Gaza war has drawn increasing international condemnation, Germany has been at pains to carefully calibrate its response.
It has insisted that Israel has the right to defend itself but has also called for it to lift its total blockade of Gaza, a Palestinian territory whose occupation by Israel the United Nations says is illegal under international law.
Aid groups say the Israeli blockade has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.
Last Tuesday, the day he took power, Merz said “Israel has the right to defend itself against the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and everything that followed”.
“But Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, especially as this terrible war is raging in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Netanyahu arrest warrant
Herzog said on Tuesday that Israel acts as a “protective wall of freedom, democracy, humanity and humaneness” and a “bulwark of the West”, especially against its arch foe Iran.
During his visit to Israel, Steinmeier is also expected to meet Netanyahu.
Merz, before his inauguration, suggested he was open to a Netanyahu visit to Germany, despite the ICC arrest warrant.
This would present Germany with a dilemma, a former president of Germany’s Constitutional Court, Andreas Vosskuhle, told the Handelsblatt daily.
“Normally, he would have to be arrested,” Vosskuhle said.
But he added: “It should be obvious that the Germans, given their own history, are reluctant to arrest the Israeli prime minister.”
“I therefore hope that Netanyahu will be wise enough not to come here and spare himself and us this situation.”
When asked about the issue, Steinmeier said: “I assume and hope that both sides are clever enough to ensure that a decision never has to be taken on whether to enforce an international arrest warrant against an Israeli prime minister in Germany”.
