The German chancellor has defended the Iran nuclear deal and warned of "another form" of anti-Semitism. Despite occasional policy differences, she reiterated Germany's "eternal responsibility" to Israel.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the Iran nuclear deal in an interview with an Israeli TV channel, saying it was preferable to having no agreement at all.
Her comments, broadcast by Israel TV's Channel 10 on Sunday, highlight differences over the deal between Germany and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vehemently criticized the internationally brokered accord for not doing enough to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu believes that the nuclear deal with Iran does not provide the security Israel desires," Merkel said. "We believe it is better to have this agreement, even if it is not perfect, than to have no agreement. We will continue to discuss this, but Germany will watch very closely to ensure that this agreement will be fulfilled."
The 2015 deal with Iran, which was negotiated by several world powers, including Germany and the United States, calls on Tehran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions imposed amid fears that Iran was seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal.
Merkel and Netanyahu disagree on the relevance of an international accord that curbed Iran's nuclear programImage: Reuters/F. Bensch
'A new phenomenon'
But the Iran nuclear deal wasn't the only subject on the agenda. Merkel also denounced "another form of anti-Semitism" emerging in Germany.
"We have a new phenomenon, as we have many refugees among whom there are, for examples, people of Arab origin, who bring another form of anti-Semitism into the country," Merkel said.
"The fact that no nursery, no school, no synagogue can be left without police protection is depressing," Merkel added.
A special relationship: Germans in Israel. Israelis in Germany.
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Differences on settlement building
In her interview, Merkel also touched on differences between Israel and Germany regarding the Netanyahu government's settlement expansion in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas that Palestinians claim for a future independent state.
"I think this situation causes some headaches because the two-state solution is not becoming more likely through a policy of settlement building," she said.
However, the chancellor said that despite policy disagreements, Germany would always have a special relationship with Israel "stemming from the eternal responsibility we bear for the Shoah" using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, Nazi Germany's killing of an estimated 6 million Jews during the Second World War.
City of strife: Jerusalem's complex history
Jerusalem is one of the oldest and most contested cities in the world. Jerusalem is revered as a sacred city by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. For this reason, there has been controversy over the city to this day.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/S. Qaq
Jerusalem, the city of David
According to the Old Testament, David, king of the two partial kingdoms of Judah and Israel, won Jerusalem from the Jebusites around 1000 BC. He moved his seat of government to Jerusalem, making it the capital and religious center of his kingdom. The Bible says David's son Solomon built the first temple for Yahweh, the God of Israel. Jerusalem became the center of Judaism.
Image: Imago/Leemage
Under Persian rule
The Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (3rd from the left) conquered Jerusalem in 597 and again in 586 BC, as the Bible says. He took King Jehoiakim (5th from the right) and the Jewish upper class into captivity, sent them to Babylon and destroyed the temple. After Persian king Cyrus the Great seized Babylon, he allowed the exiled Jews to return home to Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple.
The Roman Empire ruled Jerusalem from the year 63 AD. Resistance movements rapidly formed among the population, so that in 66 AD, the First Jewish–Roman War broke out. The war ended 4 years later, with a Roman victory and another destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The Romans and Byzantines ruled Palestine for approximately 600 years.
Image: Historical Picture Archive/COR
Conquest by the Arabs
Over the course of the Islamic conquest of Greater Syria, Muslim armies also reached Palestine. By order of the Caliph Umar (in the picture), Jerusalem was besieged and captured in the year 637 AD. In the following era of Muslim rule, various, mutually hostile and religiously divided rulers presided over the city. Jerusalem was often besieged and changed hands several times.
Image: Selva/Leemage
The Crusades
From 1070 AD onward, the Muslim Seljuk rulers increasingly threatened the Christian world. Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade, which took Jerusalem in 1099 AD. Over a period of 200 years a total of nine crusades set out to conquer the city as it changed hands between Muslim and Christian rule. In 1244 AD the crusaders finally lost control of the city and it once again became Muslim.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
The Ottomans and the British
After the conquest of Egypt and Arabia by the Ottomans, Jerusalem became the seat of an Ottoman administrative district in 1535 AD. In its first decades of Ottoman rule, the city saw a clear revival. With a British victory over Ottoman troops in 1917 AD, Palestine fell under British rule. Jerusalem went to the British without a fight.
Image: Gemeinfrei
The divided city
After World War II, the British gave up their Palestinian Mandate. The UN voted for a division of the country in order to create a home for the survivors of the Holocaust. Some Arab states then went to war against Israel and conquered part of Jerusalem. Until 1967, the city was divided into an Israeli west and a Jordanian east.
Image: Gemeinfrei
East Jerusalem goes back to Israel
In 1967, Israel waged the Six-Day War against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel took control of the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Israeli paratroopers gained access to the Old City and stood at the Wailing Wall for the first time since 1949. East Jerusalem is not officially annexed, but rather integrated into the administration.
Israel has not denied Muslims access to its holy places. The Temple Mount is under an autonomous Muslim administration; Muslims can enter, visit the Dome of the Rock and the adjacent Al-Aqsa mosque and pray there.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Gharabli
Unresolved status
Jerusalem remains to this day an obstacle to peace between Israel and Palestine. In 1980, Israel declared the whole city its "eternal and indivisible capital." After Jordan gave up its claim to the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1988, the state of Palestine was proclaimed. Palestine also declares, in theory, Jerusalem as its capital.
