speech in Hebrew to mark 40 years since the two countries established diplomatic relations and to announce a fresh offensive against anti Semitism.
Coming after some Israeli MP’s had complained about German being spoken in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Kohler thanked Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon in Hebrew for the invitation. "President Kohler set a dramatic precedent by beginning his speech with a greeting to the country’s leaders and the Knesset in Hebrew," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said later on its Internet website, monitored by BosNewsLife.
"This journey, this day, this hour, move me very much," Kohler also added in Hebrew, before continuing in German. However "we must deal with the extreme right and the anti-Semitism. We must launch an offensive against it and we will," promised Kohler.
"Every open society also has enemies. Xenophobia and anti-Semitism have not disappeared from Germany," he said. The president referred to a recent event in the state parliament of Saxony where representatives from the right-wing NPD party walked out during a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Holocaust, the international German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
"HONORING GERMANS"
The NDP also called for replacing the tribute to the Jewish victims with one honoring those Germans who died during the Allied air raid on Dresden. "Comparisons which try to play down the Shoah are scandalous and we must oppose them. We must seek to oppose right-wing extremists and anti-Semites through political means and we must do so aggressively," Kohler stressed. He spoke just days after he participated in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which was the worst Nazi-run extermination camp.
"Sixty years after the Holocaust, the pain over the murder of the Jews has not weakened," noted the president. "I want to underline that the responsibility for the Shoah forms part of the German identity." He stressed that Germany would recognize Israel’s right "to live within internationally recognized borders, free from fear and terror," as "an incontestable maxim of German politics."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reportedly told parliament earlier that while he was delighted to play host to the German president, the grief of the Holocaust would "endure forever".
PUBLIC DEBATE
A public debate in Israel over whether Kohler should address the Knesset in German overshadowed his appearance and a handful of Knesset members, including Health Minister Danny Naveh, boycotted the session in protest.
But, the only Holocaust survivor still serving in the Knesset, Opposition Leader Tommy Lapid, stayed. In a speech he described his own liberation from a Hungarian ghetto and defended Kohler’s right to address the Israeli parliament in his mother tongue, the German News Agency DPA reported.
Sharon said earlier he was disappointed by a survey carried out by Germany’s University of Bielefeld that showed that over 50 percent of Germans equate Israel’s policies to the Palestinians with Nazi policies toward the Jews, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported. 68% claimed that Israel is waging a war of annihilation against the Palestinians, according to the reported poll.
NEW STRUGGLE
"This survey shows that great efforts must be invested in education and information in order to prevent severe anti-Semitism from expanding further," Sharon was quoted as saying. "Europe must invest more in the struggle against anti-Semitism."
Sharon also reportedly told the visiting president that if Europe’s position towards the Arab-Israeli conflict were more balanced, then Europe could be more involved in the peace process. "But as long as Europe’s position is biased," Sharon said, "Israel will find it hard to see it in a mediator role," The Jerusalem Post reported. However even within Israel pressure is mounting on Sharon to change his policies.
Buoyed by a Sunday rally in Jerusalem, opponents of the Prime Minister’s plan to withdraw and expel settlers from Gaza and northern Samaria, announced plans this week to circle the Knesset seven times alluding to the Biblical account of the fall of Jericho, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service said.
Up to 150,000 people took part in the demonstration dressed in the signature orange colors of the anti-disengagement campaign, demanding the pullout plan be put to a national referendum. (With Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife, BosNewsLife News Center, Special Reports from Israel)
