Israel’s ambassador to Germany assails Smotrich for attack on chancellor

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor on Tuesday rebuked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for assailing German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had commented on Israel’s West Bank policies during Holocaust Remembrance Day, telling the German leader: “You will not force us into ghettos again.”

“I want to condemn this unequivocally,” said Prosor, speaking to Kan public radio.

“It is possible and completely legitimate to argue with the Germans, especially on this day, which is very emotional,” he continued. “But statements such as this are exactly what erode the memory of the Holocaust and present things in a completely distorted way.

“I and everyone have great criticism of the rise in antisemitism in Germany and the denial of the very existence of Israel,” Prosor added, while noting that relations between Israel and Germany are still strong amid a wave of criticism and hostility from the rest of Europe.

“There is a political debate all the time, but Merz is a great friend of Israel,” he said.

“Many things that Germany does are unacceptable to us, and things that we do are unacceptable to them,” he said, without specifying which German policies Israel has taken issue with. “But Germany has proven, especially with all the criticism against Israel in Europe, that it is our number one friend.”

Prosor’s statement marked a very rare instance of criticism of a minister from a serving Israeli ambassador.

Smotrich’s initial attack on Merz came after the German chancellor expressed “deep concern” over the current state of affairs in the West Bank and said that “There must be no de facto annexation” there, during a Monday call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

In a post on X overnight reacting to the statement, Smotrich wrote: “On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German Chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany, rather than daring to preach morality to us on how to conduct ourselves against the Nazis of our generation.”

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German Chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany, rather than daring to preach morality to us on how to conduct ourselves against the Nazis of our generation—who murdered, raped, slaughtered,… https://t.co/9Rmwz2AtM9

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) April 13, 2026

Smotrich went on to reference the acts of Hamas-led terrorists during their October 7, 2023, attack, appearing to equate the perpetrators with Palestinian society as a whole.

The minister added, “We will not accept instructions from hypocritical leaders in Europe, a continent that is once again losing its conscience and its ability to distinguish between good and evil.”

In a direct message to Merz, he added, “Mr. Chancellor, ​the days when Germans dictated to Jews where they were permitted or forbidden to live are over and shall not return.

“You will not force us into ghettos again, certainly not in our own land,” he said, referring to the West Bank, which is internationally recognized as Palestinian territory.

“Our return to the Land of Israel — our biblical and historical homeland — is the answer to anyone who tried or tries to destroy us, and we do not apologize for it for a single moment,” the far-right minister concluded.

Germany has consistently condemned Israel’s moves to deepen control in the West Bank, such as settlement expansion approval and construction, most recently  calling on Israel to halt its controversial E1 settlement project, which Smotrich had championed for years before securing a green light from the cabinet last year.

Last month, Merz called the project a “big mistake” that would “complicate the two-state solution.”

“The German government urgently calls for such steps to be refrained from,” he said.

The plan has been condemned by several international leaders, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman saying it would pose an “existential threat” to a future contiguous Palestinian state.

The Israeli government opposes Palestinian statehood, and Smotrich has said that the approval of further West Bank settlement construction was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

As Israel ushered in Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu castigated Europe.

During a pre-recorded ceremony at Yad Vashem, Netanyahu said Europe today is “afflicted by deep moral weakness,” and that Israel is now defending the continent, “which has forgotten so much since the Holocaust.”

He accused Europe of “losing control of its identity, of its values, of its responsibility to defend civilization against barbarism.”

“It has much to learn from us,” the premier said, “especially the essential lesson of the clear moral distinction between good and evil, which in moments of truth demands that we go to war for the sake of what’s good, for the sake of life.”

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.