Archangel Gabriel

It is all over the press: Germany’s foreign secretary, Sigmar Gabriel, had arranged to include meetings with two Israeli NGOs, B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence in his programme during his recent visit to Israel. These organisations, like various other NGOs that are critical of the Israeli government are subject to intense intimidation attempts by the Israeli government that is trying its utmost to close them down and block their activities.

Israel is striding fast to become as democratic as Turkey. You may wish to visit the websites of B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence and be convinced of their importance, and perhaps even make a donation to support their activities.  

Despite Netanyahu’s attempt to blackmail Gabriel into cancelling his meetings, Gabriel did not budge. By cancelling his meeting with Gabriel, Macho Man Netanyahu was able to prove the size of his balls to his right-wing support base.

A curious coalition of German Gabriel haters and the usual voices of German Philosemites can be heard in Germany in support of Netanyahu, criticising Gabriel and even suggesting that – how not –  the man is an anti-Semite. A false, ridiculous and shameful allegation.

P.S.:

I expect that Netanyahu will not have such problems during next month’s visit of Duterte, Prime Minister of the Philippines, who is on record urging his citizens to kill drug addicts and who has famously stated "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there are 3 million drug addicts. ... I'd be happy to slaughter them." Duterte’s Israel diary is more likely to include meetings with Israeli arms manufacturers than with peace activists.  

Break or Silence

The mayor of Cologne succumbed to Israeli pressure and cancelled a planned exhibition in his city of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organisation that collects and publicises testimonies of former Israeli soldiers about human rights violations committed or observed during their army service.

If they can’t break them, the Israeli government, wishes to at least silence them:

 - We will not be complacent when an organization whose whole purpose is to tarnish IDF soldiers acts in the international arena in order to cause serious damage to Israel’s image. - Israel considers the more than a thousand Israelis who have given these testimonies to be traitors and or liars.

It now turns out that Cologne’s mayor has succumbed yet again, this time to criticism over his decision, and the exhibition will take a place at a later date. To be fair, the exhibition should not have been scheduled – as it was - to be part of the festivities marking 50 years diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel. The mayor of Cologne, however, was right to quickly find a solution for the exhibition to take place after all.

The work of Breaking the Silence is laudable and deserves to be supported.