“I don’t welcome diplomats from other countries who visit Israel and at the same time meet organizations that call our soldiers war criminals,” Netanyahu said in a Bild interview.
In unusually strong language, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel for lacking sensitivity toward the victims of the Holocaust and endangering the security of the Jewish state with his support of an anti-Israel NGO.
Netanyahu told Germany’s largest circulation paper Bild on Friday that, “I find it extremely tactless for such a meeting (with left-wing NGOs Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem) to take place at this time.” Adding that, “On this day we mourn the murdered members of our people and our fallen soldiers.”
Monday was Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.
Gabriel opted to meet with hard-left NGOs instead of with Netanyahu earlier this week. Breaking the Silence uses anonymous testimonies to claim that IDF soldiers commit war crimes.
“My basic principle is simple,” Netanyahu said, “I don’t welcome diplomats from other countries who visit Israel and at the same time meet with organizations that call our soldiers war criminals.”
Netanyahu continued, saying, “Breaking Silence is not a human rights organization. They deal only with criminalizing Israeli soldiers.”
Netanyahu told Gabriel on Monday that he would not meet with him if he went ahead with his meetings with the NGOs. Gabriel snubbed the prime minister and refused to take Netanyahu’s call. Germany’s foreign ministry disputes the account.
Gabriel is one of the most left-wing foreign ministers in German history. He considers Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to be his “friend” and his party declared a “strategic partnership” with Abbas’ Fatah party. Gabriel has also gone to great lengths to boost trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran. His party held an exhibit for Breaking the Silence at its party headquarters in 2012 in Berlin.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post