German FM to return to Israel for first time since Netanyahu snub

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is scheduled to visit Israel later this month, in what would be his first visit, after he was unceremoniously disinvited by the Prime Minister’s Office last April over his meeting with the dovish Breaking the Silence group.

This time, Gabriel is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he will not host any world leader who also meets with the whistleblower group.

Gabriel, a Social Democrat, is slated to address the 11th annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, which takes place from January 29 to 31, in Tel Aviv. He is expected to meet Netanyahu on January 31.

“The meeting is a German initiative; the parameters of the visit were agreed in advance between the two foreign ministries,” an Israeli diplomatic official told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

Gabriel’s trip to Israel was first reported by Channel 10. It is currently unclear whether he will also travel to Ramallah to meet officials from the Palestinian Authority.

On April 25, Netanyahu delivered a rare snub to Berlin, when, on short notice, he canceled a scheduled meeting with Gabriel over the dignitary’s plan to meet with Breaking the Silence.

Much maligned by Israeli politicians from right-wing and even centrist and center-left parties, Breaking the Silence publishes anonymous testimonies by former Israeli combat soldiers who report alleged human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s policy is not to meet foreign visitors who on diplomatic trips to Israel meet with groups that slander IDF soldiers as war criminals,” Netanyahu’s office said at the time, explaining his decision not to receive Gabriel.

“Diplomats are welcome to meet with representatives of civil society but Prime Minister Netanyahu will not meet with those who lend legitimacy to organizations that call for the criminalization of Israeli soldiers,” it said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Netanyahu’s decision to boycott her foreign minister was “regrettable.” Talks with non-governmental organizations were common during foreign travel and should not set off a rift between allies, her spokesman said at the time.

A few weeks ago, Gabriel was criticized by friends of Israel for recalling a statement he had made years earlier that compared the Jewish state with an apartheid state.

During a mid-December meeting with Muslim representatives, Gabriel mentioned that he had visited Hebron in 2012, and that what he had seen there “reminded him of apartheid.”