Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been holding tense talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as plans to build thousands of new settler homes on occupied Palestinian land strained ties with key allies.
On a visit that risks being overshadowed by the diplomatic storm, Netanyahu joined Merkel for a meeting on Thursday morning after they had a dinner late on Wednesday, together with most of their cabinet ministers. The Israeli leader arrived from Prague where he had singled out the Czech Republic for its “friendship and courage” as the only European state to have opposed a Palestinian status upgrade at the United Nations last week.
Netanyahu’s first European visit since the UN vote came amid mounting international calls for Israel to drop plans to build 3,000 new settler homes in a highly contentious strip of the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem. He announced the move in reaction to the upgrading of Palestine to non-member observer state at the UN and has refused to go back on the decision despite strong international condemnation.
German daily Die Welt on Thursday quoted Netanyahu as saying he was “disappointed” that Berlin had abstained from voting at the UN despite reported pleas by Israel to reject the Palestinian resolution.
“People are convinced that there is a special relationship between Germany and Israel,” he said. “I think Chancellor Merkel was of the opinion that this vote would in some way foster peace. In fact the opposite is the case: after the UN vote, the Palestinian Authority under president (Mahmoud) Abbas is making plans to join with the terrorists of Hamas.”
France, Britain, Spain, the European Union, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Egypt have all summoned the Israeli ambassadors to protest the plans, which also drew criticism from Russia and Japan.
Germany, long considered Israel’s closest ally in Europe with ties rooted in the country’s bid for atonement over the Nazi holocaust, stopped short of such a move. But Merkel sharply condemned the policy as potentially torpedoing hopes for peace and the viability of a Palestinian state.
“Israel is undermining faith in its willingness to negotiate and the geographic space for a future Palestinian state, which must be the basis for a two-state solution, is disappearing,” her spokesman Steffen Seibert said this week. The new tensions came just days after Merkel had offered Israel full support for its military action in Gaza in response to repeated rocket fire.