Diplomat says Israel protested to Germany after envoy attended hearing on overhaul law

An Israeli diplomat tells The Times of Israel that Jerusalem has expressed its displeasure to Berlin after German Ambassador Steffen Seibert shared a video of himself attending last week’s High Court hearing on the reasonableness law, the first piece of legislation passed in the government’s judicial overhaul.

“At Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s instruction, a senior Foreign Ministry official spoke with [German] Ambassador Seibert and expressed our protest on the matter. Similar messages were sent from the embassy in Berlin to Germany’s Foreign Ministry,” the diplomat says.

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement today that “the observation of important political, also domestic, developments in their respective host countries is a central responsibility of diplomats.

“The visit of a public hearing of a partner state’s supreme court, like the visit of Ambassador Seibert, is an excellent example for this common practice,” the statement added. “The Federal Foreign Office is in permanent contact with its Israeli partners. We cannot confirm media reports about an official protest of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.”