American Jewish Committee Urges Germany To Lead European Support For Israel At UN

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 10 December 1998

American Jewish Committee leaders, after two days of talks with senior officials of the new German government, welcomed the pledges they had received of continuity in the particularly close relationship between Germany and Israel, commitment to constructing a fitting memorial in the center of Berlin to Holocaust victims, and heightened resolve to address the unfinished agenda of monetary compensation for those pressed into forced labor by government and private industry under the Third Reich.

In the first meeting of American Jewish leadership with the German government installed six weeks ago, AJC President Bruce M. Ramer and Executive Director David A. Harris said they had been assured of Germany's continued support for Israel, including its advocacy of Israel's acceptance into the UN regional bloc known as the Western Europe and Others Group as a means to gain full membership privileges it has been long denied in the world body.

AJC encouraged Germany to raise the profile of its advocacy for Israel when it assumes the presidency of the European Union, for a six-month term, in January 1999. AJC launched an international advocacy campaign in 1997 to spur the European group's admission of Israel.

The AJC delegation also called on Germany to immediately voice opposition to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's oft-stated threat to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state on May 4, 1999.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told the AJC delegation that he would continue the policy pursued by his predecessor, Klaus Kinkel, of support for Israel in the European group. Because of the Holocaust, Fischer said in the 80-minute discussion at the Foreign Ministry, "there is a special responsibility of the German democracy toward Israel."

He called Germany's "special relationship" with Israel - and its orientation toward the United States and other Western democracies - "the roots of our foreign policy, and there will be no change."

In addition to Fischer - and a courtesy call on Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder - the AJC delegation met with Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping, Chancery Federal Minister Bodo Hombach, and leaders of the Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, and Green Party factions in the Bundestag, as well as U.S. Ambassador John Kornblum and Israeli Ambassador Avi Primor. Ramer and Harris were accompanied by AJC Government and International Affairs Director Jason Isaacson and AJC Berlin Office Director Eugene DuBow.

In the meeting with the new Defense Minister, the AJC delegation also brought up the problem of right-wing extremism in the military and was assured that since the matter arose, most recently last year, the armed forces had taken additional measures to prevent its recurrence. Minister Scharping endorsed continuation of a joint program, begun in 1994, in which German military officers visit AJC headquarters in New York annually for daylong discussions on German-Jewish topics.

"Germany's role in European and world affairs, its alliance with the United States, its unique relationship with Israel, and its obligation to preserve the memory of the Holocaust require an ongoing dialogue between Germany and American and world Jewry," said Ramer. "Our meetings in Bonn this week underline AJC's commitment to maintaining and expanding that dialogue."

AJC opened its Berlin office, the Lawrence and Lee Ramer Center for German-Jewish Relations, in February 1998, as further demonstration of its nearly 50-year effort to write a new chapter in German-Jewish relations against the searing backdrop of the Shoah.

AJC's meetings came amidst a vigorous debate in Germany over the place of Holocaust commemoration in the nation's political and intellectual life. Much of the debate has turned on whether to build a large Holocaust memorial in the center of Berlin, Germany's historic and future capital, and if so what kind of monument. At the same time, an intense national discussion was recently sparked when a well-known intellectual, Martin Walser, criticized those who "instrumentalize Auschwitz," eliciting a vigorous response from Ignatz Bubis, leader of the German Jewry, who accused Walser of seeking to diminish the memory of the Holocaust and Germany's sense of responsibility.

"Our discussions with the new German government," said Harris, "revealed both a full engagement in the issues of Holocaust memory and a commitment to pursue a proper course that speaks for the individuals and communities destroyed in that period, and provides compensation for those who suffered forced labor and other crimes. AJC will continue to consult with our German interlocutors as the international debates on compensation and memorialization progress, and we will continue to press for a prompt and honorable resolution of the unfinished agenda left in the wake of the Holocaust."

AJC's meetings in Bonn ranged widely over issues the organization has long pursued in its international program. The delegation exchanged views with German officials on Bonn's very close alliance with the United States; the Arab-Israeli peace process, including current issues in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; perspectives on the economic and political turmoil in Russia; and the urgency of enhanced international cooperation to prevent the acquisition by "rogue states," terrorists and international criminals of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons technologies.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org