The German government has been asked in an anonymous letter to reconsider its support for NGOs such as "Brot für die Welt" (Bread for the World) and to cut funding to the Jewish Museum Berlin. What is going on?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Rumpenhorst
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"The German promotion of non-governmental organizations that intervene in Israel's internal affairs or promote anti-Israel activities is unparalleled," says the letter, which was sent without sender and signature to the German daily taz, most likely from Israel. "We would like the Federal Government to tie its further financial support to the complete halt of such activities." The author demanded that the federal government "review its funding guidelines."
In concrete terms, the financing of a total of twelve NGOs with their partners in Israel and Palestine, is being questioned. This includes organizations such as Brot für die Welt and Misereor, as well as various political foundations such as the Green party-aligned Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Berlinale film festival.
Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence
Triumph or catastrophe? The state of Israel was declared 70 years ago this week, according to the Hebrew calendar — a turning point for Jews after the Holocaust. DW looks back at events that have shaped Israeli history.
Image: Imago/W. Rothermel
Long-held hope is victorious
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, future first prime minister of Israel, declares the state's independence, outlining the Jewish story: "The people kept faith with (the land) throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom." It was the birth of an internationally recognized Jewish homeland.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The darkest hour
While the controversial idea of a God-given land for Jews has biblical roots, the Holocaust was a close, powerful backdrop for the significance of Israel's founding. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews across Europe, and those who survived the concentration camps endured expulsion and forced labor. The above photo shows survivors of the Auschwitz camp following liberation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/akg-images
'Nakba': Arabic for 'catastrophe'
Directly after Israel's founding, it was attacked by troops from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq - among others. Israel pushed back and expanded its control over 77% of Palestinian territory. Some 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes. "Nakba" is what Palestinians call this event. The war encapsulated the still unresolved Mideast conflict sparked in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration.
Image: picture-alliance/CPA Media
Life on a kibbutz
These land collectives, known as kibbutzim in the plural, were established across Israel following independence. Many were run by secular or socialist Jews in an effort to realize their vision of society.
Image: G. Pickow/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A state at war
Tensions with its Arab neighbors erupted in the Six-Day War in June 1967. With a surprise attack, Israel is able to swiftly defeat Egypt, Jordan and Syria, bringing the Arab-populated areas of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights under Israeli control. Victory leads to occupation — and more tension and conflict.
Image: Keystone/ZUMA/IMAGO
Settlements on disputed territory
Israel's settlement policy worsens the conflict with Palestinians. Due to development and expansion of Jewish areas on occupied Palestinian land, the Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of making a future Palestinian state untenable. Israel has largely ignored the international community's criticism of its settlement policy, arguing new construction is either legal or necessary for security.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Hill
Anger, hate and stones: The first intifada
In winter 1987, Palestinians begin mass protests of Israel's ongoing occupation. Unrest spreads from Gaza to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The uprising eventually wound down and led to the 1993 Oslo Accords — the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the representative body of the Palestinian people.
Image: picture-alliance/AFP/E. Baitel
Peace at last?
With former US President Bill Clinton as a mediator, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat hold peace talks. The result, the Oslo I Accord, is each side's recognition of the other. The agreement leads many to hope that an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict is not far off, but peace initiatives suffer a major setback when Rabin is assassinated two years later.
Image: picture-alliance/CPA Media
A void to fill
A right-wing Jewish fanatic shoots and kills Rabin on November 4, 1995, while he is leaving a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Rabin's assassination throws the spotlight on Israel's internal social strife. The divide is growing between centrist and extremist, secular and religious. The photo shows Israel's then-acting prime minister, Shimon Peres, next to the empty chair of his murdered colleague.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Delay
Addressing the unspeakable
Nazi Germany's mass murder of Jews weighs on German-Israeli relations to this day. In February 2000, Germany's then-President Johannes Rau addresses the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in German. It is a tremendous emotional challenge for both sides, especially for Holocaust survivors and their descendants, but also a step towards closer relations after unforgettable crimes.
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The Israeli wall
In 2002, amid the violence and terror of the Second Intifada, Israel starts building a 107-kilometer-long (67-mile-long) barrier of barbed wire, concrete wall and guard towers between itself and Palestinian areas of the West Bank. It suppresses the violence but does not solve the larger political conflict. The wall grows in length over the years and is projected to reach around 700 kilometers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb/S. Nackstrand
A gesture to the dead
Germany's current foreign minister, Heiko Maas, steps decisively into an ever closer German-Israeli relationship. His first trip abroad as the country's top diplomat is to Israel in March 2018. At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, he lays a wreath in memory of Holocaust victims.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Yefimovich
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Freedoms of expression are 'fundamental rights'
Dieter Kosslick, head of the Berlinale, commented on the accusation in the Tagesspiegel that the founding idea of the Berlinale was to contribute to international understanding. This, he said, included the presentation of different perspectives on the world. "Artistic freedom and freedom of opinion are fundamental rights."
The Federal Cultural Authority announced that Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters had taken note of the Israeli government's concerns. However, Grütters said that the autonomy of the Berlinale in artistic matters was treasured and protected. It goes without saying that "the Berlinale should not provide a stage for Israel’s declared enemies or other fundamentalist or anti-democratic movements."
A room in the Jewish Museum Berlin's "Jerusalem" exhibitionImage: Jüdisches Museum Berlin/Y. Sucksdorff
Jewish Museum exhibit criticized
According to the letter, the background for the criticism of the Jewish Museum Berlin's exhibition "Welcome to Jerusalem," because it reflects a "Palestinian-Muslim view of Jerusalem." The exhibition, which has already been on view for a year, presents the Holy City from various perspectives as a place longed for and fought over by three monotheistic religions.
We are convinced "that an open discussion involving different, sometimes controversial points of view is indispensable in order to enable our visitors to form their own, differentiated judgement," the museum stated. And with reference to a contribution by museum director Peter Schäfer in the Tagesspiegel, it went on to say, "It goes without saying that activists of any political orientation should not be offered a forum, which applies in particular to supporters or activists of the BDS campaign (...). We observe, with concern, the increasing spread of a 'culture of suspicion'."
The fact that Israel is increasing the pressure on independent and critical civil society is nothing new. The Heinrich Böll Foundation has been observing this for some time and has described the developments to DW as "alarming." According to spokesperson Michael Alvarez Israel is the only stable democracy in the region, and the current government "should preserve these achievements." The accusations in the letter are "absurd" and to describe a magazine like +972, which is financially supported by the Böll Foundation, as "anti-Israeli," for example, is defamatory and an attack on journalists and freedom of the press in Israel.
The German government is reluctant to comment on the matter. So far it has neither confirmed nor denied that the document comes directly from the Israeli government.
In Friday's weekly federal press conference, deputy government spokesperson Ulrike Demmer did not want to comment directly on the question of whether she had exchanged views with Israel on the letter and pointed out that there was a close and regular exchange of views on numerous issues with the Israeli government. Germany only supports projects in Israel by institutions that are "registered in Israel according to Israeli law" and not NGOs as a whole.
According to taz the letter was also sent to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). However, the BMZ has denied this.
