Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was scheduled to arrive in Germany on Wednesday for an official diplomatic visit, amid efforts by E.U. member states to isolate Israel and following the harshest condemnations yet by Berlin of Israel’s war actions in Gaza.
Sa’ar is scheduled to hold high-level meetings with key German officials, including Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, Education Minister Karin Prien, Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder and chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee Armin Laschet, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last week criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza, using the harshest public statements to date by a German senior official about the campaign to dismantle Hamas.
Merz, a leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union and who became chancellor last month, said he “no longer understands” Israel’s goals in the Strip, speaking during the WDR Europaforum conference in Berlin. Israel’s actions cannot be justified, he said.
“The Israeli government must not do anything that even its best friends are no longer willing to accept,” said Merz. “What the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, I frankly no longer understand with what goal. To cause such suffering to the civilian population, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified by the fight against Hamas terrorism,” said Merz.
Germany is one of Israel’s main advocates in the European Union, whose governing body last month began reexamining the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement, the contract that regulates trade and some bilateral relations between the Jewish state and the bloc. The Netherlands initiated the review, with Spain and France supporting downgrading it.
The Gemran foreign minister, Wadephul, visited Israel three weeks ago, conducting his first official visit outside of Europe.