US defends Breaking the Silence as ‘important’ for Israeli discourse

The US State Department on Wednesday defended the controversial Breaking the Silence NGO as fulfilling an “important” role in Israeli society.

A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a meeting with visiting German Foreign Sigmar Gabriel over the latter’s planned sit-down with the left-wing organization, State Department deputy spokesperson Mark C. Toner said it was not Washington’s place to comment on the Israeli prime minister’s schedule.

“More broadly about this group, I think we would regard it as important that any functioning civil society has these types of groups and the diverse viewpoints,” Toner, a career diplomat, told reporters during the State Department’s daily briefing. “That’s a vital part of any functioning democracy.”

Netanyahu’s dramatic decision to disinvite Gabriel, mere hours before they were scheduled to meet, marked another low point in German-Israel relations, which have been privately frosty for years.

A spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkel said she found the cancellation “regrettable.” Talks with non-governmental organizations were common during foreign travel and should not set off a rift between allies, he said. “It should not be problematic for foreign visitors to meet with critical representatives of civil society.”

Breaking the Silence, which publishes anonymous testimonies alleging human rights abuses by Israeli soldiers, is one of the country’s most-loathed leftist organizations.

“Imagine if foreign diplomats visiting the United States or Britain met with NGOs that call American or British soldiers war criminals. Leaders of those countries would surely not accept this,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“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.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely branded the NGO an “enemy,” saying it was worse than other pro-Palestinian groups since, she said, it seeks to get Israel’s soldiers prosecuted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The saga started when Netanyahu’s office presented Gabriel with an ultimatum ahead of his first visit to Israel as foreign minister: Either he canceled his planned meeting with Breaking the Silence, or he would be disinvited from the Prime Minister’s Office. But Gabriel, a seasoned politician from Germany’s main center-left party, insisted on the meeting.

“In the past, the German embassy always invited them [Breaking the Silence],” Gabriel said Tuesday in his first reaction to Netanyahu’s snub. “There were never any difficulties; they were even once on the guest list of the federal president, therefore [the cancellation] came as a surprise to us.”

The German foreign minister said he regrets Netanyahu’s decision, but added that it is “no catastrophe” and that bilateral relations will remain unchanged.

This incident was not the first time a visiting dignitary’s meeting with leftist NGOs caused irritation in Jerusalem.

In February, Netanyahu instructed the Foreign Ministry to reprimand the Belgian ambassador to Israel because the country’s prime minister, Charles Michel, had met with Breaking the Silence and another dovish NGO, B’Tselem, a visit Jerusalem “views with utmost gravity,” according to a statement the PMO issued at the time.