German Chancellor Address

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the Israeli Knesset. She was the first German chancellor to address that body. Topics included the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. She said that Germany must recognize its responsibility for the Holocaust. She spoke of the dangers of racism and xenophobia in Europe, cultural memory, and the shared values of freedom and democracy. She also talked about the Palestine-Israel conflict. She pledged that “Germany will never leaver or abandon Israel.”

Translation into English was by voiceover.

Germany first established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1965, twenty years after the end of World War II.

Footage courtesy of the Knesset Channel. close