Rare moment. Top Israeli official criticized by country's ambassador after telling German chancellor to 'bow his head and apologize a thousand times'
Israel's ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said he wanted to “unequivocally condemn” the statements made by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who “erode the memory of the Holocaust” by criticizing Chancellor Friedrich Merz, The Guardian reported.
In a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the German chancellor urged Israel to end military attacks in southern Lebanon and expressed “deep concern about developments in the Palestinian territories,” warning that a “de facto annexation” of the Israeli-occupied West Bank should not be allowed, according to a statement from Berlin.
For these claims, Friedrich Merz was vehemently criticized by the Israeli finance minister.
“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany, instead of daring to preach morality to us about how to behave against the Nazis of our generation,” Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement that appeared to equate the Hamas militants involved in the massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, and all the Palestinians.
“Mr. Chancellor, the days of the Germans dictating to Jews where they were allowed or forbidden to live are gone and will not return. You will no longer force us into ghettos, certainly not in our own country,” added Smotrich, a self-proclaimed “homophobic fascist.”
The reaction of the Israeli ambassador
On Tuesday, Ron Prosor said Bezalel Smotrich's claims “erode the memory of the Holocaust and present it in a completely distorted way.”
“It is possible and completely legitimate to argue with the Germans, especially on this day, which is very emotional,” Prosor told Kan public radio.
“There is a political debate all the time, but Merz is a great friend of Israel,” he added. “A lot of things that Germany does are unacceptable to us, and things that we do are unacceptable to them. But Germany has proven, especially considering all the criticisms of Israel in Europe, that it is our number 1 friend,” stressed the head of the Israeli diplomatic mission in Berlin.
