Israel’s Foreign Ministry filed an official complaint with the German government against German Ambassador to Israel Steffan Seibert for attending the Supreme Court’s hearing on the reasonableness law last week.
The ministry was outraged at the ambassador’s attendance at the hearing – a move perceived as an attempt to interfere in Israel’s internal affairs.
Seibert posted a video from the courtroom in which he stated in Hebrew: “I think something important is happening to Israel’s democracy. As friends of Israel, we look at the Supreme Court with great interest.”
This isn’t the first time that Seibert has kindled the ire of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. In July, Ynet reported that the ministry took the unprecedented action of summoning and rebuking Seibert for his attendance at an alternative Yom Ha’atzmaut event that honored slain Palestinians, many of whom died in the course of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Additionally, Seibert instructed the German Air Force not to participate in the Yom Ha’atzmaut flyover over Yehudah and Shomron. Previously, he instructed German diplomats not to photograph the Old City of Jerusalem due to its status as “occupied territory.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
A bit of chutzpah for a foreign ministry that routinely has its reps attending Congressional hearings, Supreme Court arguments and previously arranged for its PM to address the joint legislative bodies of another major country w/o arrangements through the country’s sitting President.
Seibert wasn’t invited by the Court. Netanyahu was invited by the Congress. And this kraut has been injected his personal views into Israeli politics all the time, which is a violation of protocol.
Why don’t they just send him packing?
It’s not at all a chutzpah. Israel must and should be represented at hearings and court cases that affect Israel’s vital interests. Germany has no business at all paying any attention to a coup attempt by an Israeli court, and certainly has no right to express support for the coup attempt. That is a hostile move against Israel.
Its still better than murdering 6m Jews. Calm down, they’re MEANT to hate us.
Gadolhadora – you are comparing apples to oranges. Israeli representatives attend congressional hearings on matters that impact Israel, which is clearly part of their diplomatic role and fully appropriate. Attending a random hearing as an observer and then reporting on it back to the Israeli Foreign Ministry would also be non-controversial, since providing feedback to the home government on general developments in the host country is part of a diplomat’s job. The issue here is the ambassador then tweeting about it – which is taking a public position on a domestic Israeli matter.
As to the Netanyahu speech to Congress in 2015 – Netanyahu was invited by the leaders of Congress to address them on an issue of vital Israeli national interest. Under the US system, Congress, as a co-equal branch of government, does not need to coordinate such an invitation with the executive branch – and neither does the invitee. Given the life-and-death nature of the issue Netanyahu was speaking about, no apologies are necessary for his putting the interests of his nation above all.
an Israeli Yid