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Foreign Ministry rips Goethe-Institut over Nakba event on Kristallnacht anniversary

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

The logo of the Goethe Institute, at German cultural association's facility in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
The logo of the Goethe Institute, at German cultural association's facility in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

The Foreign Ministry blasts the Goethe-Institut Israel for its upcoming event, “Grasping the Pain of the Others – Panel discussion on the Holocaust, Nakba and German Remembrance Culture,” set to take place on the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

“The Foreign Ministry expresses shock and disgust in the face of the blatant cheapening of Holocaust and the cynical and manipulative attempt to create a linkage whose entire purpose is to defame Israel,” reads the ministry’s statement.

The ministry also calls on the organizers to cancel the “outrageous” event.

“We must not allow foreign cultural and educational policies to support attempts to link commemoration of the Holocaust and the Nakba,” tweets German lawmaker Frank Muller-Rosentritt. “That this is planned by @goetheinstitut in Israel on November 9 of all days is a scandal.”

The panel, organized in conjunction with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Israel office, features Israeli academics and German journalist Charlotte Wiedemann.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, took place on November 9, 1938, when Nazi forces and German civilians attacked synagogues and Jewish business, likely killing hundreds.

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