Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the ministry took the highly unusual move of summoning Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, to deliver a message about his interference in the affairs internal, including the alleged honoring of Palestinian terrorists.
Lior Haiat, the spokesman for Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, told Fox News that he “confirms” the report on the website of the Israeli conservative news channel Chanel 14.
Seibert’s reported rebuke coincides with a recent Fox News Digital report on criticism leveled against the Biden administration’s alleged “blatant interference” in Israeli domestic affairs.
Channel 14 reported in late May that “Seibert was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was reprimanded by the head of the Europe Division, Daniel Meron, following a series of events that were seen with harshness in Israel. Among other things, Seibert participated in the ‘Alternative Day of Remembrance’ ceremony in Tel Aviv.”
Israel’s MFA and Seibert’s Israeli critics were highly outraged by Seibert for his role in denigrating one of Israel’s most important and solemn days: “Day of Remembrance of Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Acts hostile”.
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Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on January 2, 2023. (Photo by Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Handout / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Israeli Middle East expert Caroline Glick told Fox News Digital that Seibert’s role in the alternative ceremony, also known as the joint memorial day, was a “hostile act not only toward the Israeli government but toward Israeli society,” because the event honors “dead Palestinian terrorists” with Israeli victims of terrorism and fallen Israeli soldiers. Glick, who hosts the popular Caroline Glick Show on the Jewish News Syndicate, said the alternative ceremony, which has taken place since 2006, “is met with overwhelming revulsion” in Israel and is a false “moral equivalence” because it equates Palestinians who carried out terrorist acts on Jewish victims of terrorism and fallen Israeli soldiers fighting terrorism.
Glick said Germany is funding the NGO Parents Circle—Families Forum that is sponsoring the alternative memorial ceremony. He added that the event is a “deliberate act by the NGO Parents Circle—Forum of Families to anger and cause great emotional distress in Israeli society and undermine the spirit of Israeli society.”
Israelis in Jerusalem mark Remembrance Day with a national minute of silence. (Yoav Dudkevich/TPS)
Robi Damelin, a spokeswoman for the Parents Circle—Families Forum, told Fox News Digital that she lost her son David to terrorism in 2002 and expressed outrage at being seen as a “traitor.” She said: “PCFF is working for non-violence and reconciliation. The people who criticized the ceremony have never attended a ceremony. You can go to YouTube and watch the ceremony where Palestinians and Israelis come together to tell their stories on Memorial Day. and listening to beautiful music and poetry. I don’t think it’s radical. I think it’s unique.”
Damelin said the German NGO Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt), the European Union and private donors provide funds to PCFF. Israel’s MFA also took Seibert to task for his role in preventing the German air force from participating in a joint flight with the Israeli air force over the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria during the 75th Day of Atonement ceremony. Independence of the Jewish State in April.
Ariel Kahana, a top diplomatic commentator for Israel’s most widely read Hebrew-language newspaper, the center-right Israel Hayom, who first broke the story about Seibert interfering with the German air force flight, told Fox News Digital that “Seibert boasted of Succeeding in preventing the flight” over the disputed territory. Palestinians see the disputed territory of the West Bank, known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria, as land for their future state. The Israeli government has built Jewish homes and cities in Judea and Samaria and contests the Palestinian claim to the entire region.
Palestinians wave their national flag during a protest against an Israeli parade in Jerusalem’s Old City, along the border with Israel east of Gaza City, Thursday, May 18, 2023. The parade in Jerusalem was mark Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the east. Jerusalem in the Middle East war of 1967. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital and see the march as a provocation. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
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The United States, the United Kingdom and Italy participated in the joint flight in celebration of the founding of Israel and did not withdraw their flight over Judea and Samaria. The Israeli military said at the time that this is “a sign of partnership between the countries and the unique relationship of the State of Israel with them.”
Glick said: “The German army is supposed to be a symbolic representation of the new Germany. They asked to participate and insinuated themselves into our national independence and took the opportunity to insult it.” He added that the refusal to join Israel’s air force in the crossing is “just an act of hostility on the part of the Germans”.
Israelis in Jerusalem mark Remembrance Day with a national minute of silence. (Yoav Dudkevich/TPS)
Yossi Melman, a veteran Israeli columnist for the left-wing Haaretz, said Seibert’s rebuke “is shameful and stupid. Germany is a big supporter of Israel. For what? Because they don’t allow Germany to fly over the West Bank.”
Melman said German government policy “does not recognize the West Bank” as Israeli territory. He added that the Germans “support Israel against Iran. They help Israel with intelligence. Trade between Israel and Germany is big.”
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Israelis wave national flags in front of the Damascus Gate outside Jerusalem’s Old City to mark Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of the Old City during the 1967 war, on May 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
He added that “You don’t do that publicly” regarding Seibert’s rebuke. “Ambassadors are supposed to represent all sectors of Israeli society, including the opposition and tiny minorities. He is the German ambassador to Israel, not the Israeli government,” Melman said.
Israel’s MFA also summoned Seibert over a report that the German government twice instructed German diplomats not to take photographs in Jerusalem’s Old City because Berlin considers it “occupied territory.” , according to Israel Hayom.
Yonatan Shay, the head of the Hasbara (Defence of Israel) Dep. d’Im Tirtzu told Fox News Digital that Seibert has contributed to a deterioration in German-Israeli relations during his brief tenure as ambassador. Shay said that “the largest Zionist movement in Israel, Im Tirtzu, really believes that he should resign because of his recent fiascos.”
Shay said of Seibert’s tweets in support of alleged Palestinian terrorists that he “dishonored International Holocaust Remembrance Day by criticizing the heroic IDF operation in Jenin in which the IDF eliminated Palestinian terrorists with Jewish blood in the hands”.
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Then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony for fallen soldiers from Israel’s wars at the Yad Lebanim House on the eve of Memorial Day, in Jerusalem, April 13, 2021. Debbie Hill/Pool via REUTERS (Reuters)
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Shay, who speaks fluent German and worked for the Jewish Agency for Israel in Germany, said Seibert “dishonored the holiest day on the Israeli calendar by participating in the joint alternative memorial ceremony to honor Palestinian terrorists who they murdered Jews and IDF soldiers who fell. in battle protecting our land.”
Fox News Digital sent numerous press inquiries to Seibert and the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe for Fox News Digital. Benjamin has contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, Forbes and The New York Post. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.
