German President Joachim Gauck has warned against elevating Holocaust commemoration to "a quasi-religious dimension,” as he met Palestinian leaders in the West Bank on Thursday.
Speaking to weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Gauck said Chancellor Angela Merkel's stated position that Israel's right to exist was a raison d' état or national interest for Germany could be asking too much from the next generation.
"This sentence by Mrs Merkel comes from the hearts of my generation," he said.
(...)
Gauck, who visited Israel this week, said he was not at all talking about drawing a line under the Holocaust debate. "But there's one tendency I don't want to follow – pulling the perception of the Holocaust into a quasi-religious dimension, into something surreal," he said.
Gauck's comments came as he visited Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah. Gauck promised Abbas that Germany would continue to provide financial aid to the Palestinians – currently amounting to €70 million a year – as long as there was no solution to the Mideast conflict. Full story...
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Speaking to weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Gauck said Chancellor Angela Merkel's stated position that Israel's right to exist was a raison d' état or national interest for Germany could be asking too much from the next generation.
"This sentence by Mrs Merkel comes from the hearts of my generation," he said.
(...)
Gauck, who visited Israel this week, said he was not at all talking about drawing a line under the Holocaust debate. "But there's one tendency I don't want to follow – pulling the perception of the Holocaust into a quasi-religious dimension, into something surreal," he said.
Gauck's comments came as he visited Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah. Gauck promised Abbas that Germany would continue to provide financial aid to the Palestinians – currently amounting to €70 million a year – as long as there was no solution to the Mideast conflict. Full story...
Related posts:
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