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Merkel Cancels «Israel» Summit after Settlement Vote

Merkel Cancels «Israel» Summit after Settlement Vote
folder_openGermany access_time7 years ago
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Citing upcoming elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled a joint summit with "Israeli" officials scheduled for May, but elements within Berlin and Tel Aviv are claiming that the entity's recent vote to expand its settlements in the West Bank is the real cause for the cancellation.

Merkel Cancels «Israel» Summit after Settlement Vote

German national security adviser Kristof Heusgen informed the office of "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the postponed meeting just days after the Knesset passed the "Regularization Law", according to Haaretz, even though the German elections won't be held until four and a half months after the summit in September.

One "Israeli" spokesman told Deutsche Welle that the summit was canceled due to a "variety of international appointments within the context of the German presidency of the G20."

"Israeli" President Reuven Rivlin also denounced the decision, saying that the "Israeli" entity could be "seen as an apartheid state" as a result of the vote.

"Sovereignty over the states needs to happen collectively, for all its citizens...It can't be that in one area of land these are separate codes of law for ‘Israelis' and non-‘Israelis'," he said.

The controversial bill was passed in early February and retroactively legalizes the units of nearly 4,000 settlers. Soon after the vote members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization [PLO] decried the decision as a way to "legalize theft", pointing out that "‘Israeli' settlement enterprise negates peace and the possibility of the ‘two-state' solution," and that the "Israeli" regime's "will to destroy any chances for a political solution."

Anat Ben-Nun spokesman for the anti-settlement Peace Now organization told al-Jazeera that "This law will make theft an official ‘Israeli' policy by retroactively legalizing illegal construction on private lands."

A Germany Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned the decision saying, "Many in Germany who stand by ‘Israel' and feel great commitment toward it find themselves deeply disappointed by this move," and "Our trust in the ‘Israeli' government's commitment to the ‘two-state' solution has been fundamentally shaken." according to Haaretz.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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