Merkel Spokesman Backs Foreign Minister in NGO Brouhaha

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman backed the country’s foreign minister on Wednesday in a spat over his meeting with a left-wing NGO in Israel, saying that it must be possible to meet critical organizations in a democracy.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu abruptly canceled planned talks Tuesday with visiting Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel over his meeting with Breaking the Silence, whom he says “slander (Israeli) soldiers and seek to put our soldiers on trial as war criminals.”

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said the chancellor considers it “regrettable” that the meeting with the Israeli premier didn’t happen.

“In a democracy it should be possible for foreign visitors to speak without problems to critical representatives of civil society,” Seibert told reporters in Berlin, noting that the chancellor herself regularly meets non-governmental organizations on foreign trips.

He said that Gabriel and Chancellor Merkel, who belong to different political parties, “were in regular contact, as they always are.”

“All this changes nothing about the paramount significance of our relations with Israel,” Seibert said.

Meanwhile, the NGOs were defiant.

“Civil society will not take orders or succumb to pressure. We will go on opposing the injustices of the occupation until it becomes a thing of the past,” three Left-wing groups – B’Tselem, Peace Now and Breaking the Silence – said in a joint statement. The latter was the chief target of Mr. Netanyahu’s decision.

Breaking the Silence executive director Yuli Novak said, “Just when I thought I had seen everything, the last 48 hours surprised me.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s decision appears to be a departure in policy. Until a few months ago, when a similar incident occurred involving the Belgian prime minister, Israel placed only two restrictions on contacts for visiting diplomats: Meetings with Hamas are banned; and visits to the Palestinian Authority must be offset by meetings with Israeli officials, according to The Jerusalem Post.

In March, Peace Now discussed building activity in Yehudah and Shomron with visiting British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and Mr. Netanyahu allowed it to pass. However, Peace Now, though a vociferous opponent of Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians, does not disseminate anonymous accusations of IDF war crimes, as Breaking the Silence does.

On Wednesday Michael Oren, Deputy Minister for Diplomatic Relations, told Army Radio that “It was his [Gabriel’s] choice. He is the one who made the inexplicable decision not to go ahead with the state meeting.” Oren suggested that Gabriel was grandstanding, challenging Netanyahu to gain plaudits from anti-Israel groups in Germany.

“We placed a red line and that red line must be adhered to. It’s unacceptable for European leaders to come here to help those who degrade our soldiers as war criminals, and that’s what Breaking the Silence does,” Oren said of the group. He canceled his own scheduled meeting with Gabriel.

In remarks on Tuesday evening before National Bible Quiz participants, Netanyahu stated that it has long been government policy not to “meet with diplomats who visit Israel and meet with organizations that slander IDF soldiers and seek to put our soldiers on trial as war criminals.”