Conspicuously missing from the high-level Israeli delegation taking part in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s G2G talks in Berlin is Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a close colleague of Mr. Netanyahu who was expected to take part. He was to meet with his German counterpart but according to a Yisrael Hayom report, Katz will not visit Germany in principle after the Holocaust.

The report quotes Katz saying, “As a son of survivors I do not travel to Germany. My father fled on a train from Budapest and was apprehended and my mother, at the time 15, was in seven concentration camps in Germany and Poland. She was also in the infamous Death March”.

In his words “I maintain the necessary contacts demanded by the job responsibilities but I do not take part in ceremonies and I do not visit”.

Filling in for Katz is Minister of Energy Dr. Yuval Steinitz.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)