- Increasing Israeli trust in Germany is good for the stability in the Middle East

Berlin 20 October 2006 – "Israel can expect a more friendly and knowledgeable EU-presidency after the Finnish term ends on the 31st of December".  This was the main conclusion after a delegation from the European Coalition for Israel, lead by executive director Rijk van Dam, visited the the German capital Berlin this week. The four day visit came to a close on Friday after the delegation had met with key government officials, members of all of the five political parties represented in the German bundestag and with officials from the foreign ministry.

The Coalition was well received by the upcoming German presidency which showed a genuine interest in the fact that Israel has an organised network of grassroot friends from all over the European Union. Several politicians expressed a serious concern over the growing antipathy towards Israel in German media and in the public at large. At the same time the Israeli trust in Germany has paradoxically increased resulting in a request to have Germany sending peace keeping troops to the Lebanese-Israeli border as part of the official UN peace keeping force.

During their four day visit the Coalition delegation brought up a number of issues which will need the attention of the upcoming presidency. Among them were the unclear status of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, which despite a clear resolution from the European parliament to add the group to the EU black list, is still not officially considered a terrorist organisation. According to the Coalition there are no excuses to keep Hezbollah from the terrorist list regardless of the opposition of some European member states governments. The Coalition delegation also brought up the issue of the 500 million of tax and duties which the Israeli government are still withholding the Palestinians. There is currently EU-pressure to release the funds but the Coalition stressed that "these funds can under no circumstances go directly to the Hamas lead Palestinian government which would be contrary to EU-policies but to the World Bank and its temporary instrument for funding the Palestinians, TIM."
– "This organisation is the right receiver of any withheld tax money if the funds are going to reach the suffering Palestinian people", vam Dam noted.

Apart from these issues the Coalition also discussed the politically motivated definition of a Palestinian refugee which today implies that any children or grandchildren of a Palestinian refugee has the right to call themselves a Palestinian refugee. The Coalition repeated what was said at their 4h Annual Policy Conference in Brussels in September where Dr Juergen Buehler presented a well documented research paper asking the European Union to review the current mandate of UNWRA (United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near  East ) in the light of the UN refugee convention.
–"The definition of a Palestinian refugee is different from any other refugee, said van Dam. This can hardly be a factor that will enhance the peace process and lead to a just peace."

The European Coalition for Israel has also met with representatives of the two previous EU-presidencies Finland and Austria where they have presented issues which are affecting EU-Israeli relations. Each EU-presidency lasts six months during which government officials from the current presidency chair any EU meeting. The upcoming German presidency will start on January 1, 2007 and end on June 30 when the Portuguese government will take over the EU-chairmanship.

The Coalition was well received by the upcoming German presidency which showed a genuine interest in the fact that Israel has an organised network of grassroot friends from all over the European Union. Several politicians expressed a serious concern over the growing antipathy towards Israel in German media and in the public at large. At the same time the Israeli trust in Germany has paradoxically increased resulting in a request to have Germany sending peace keeping troops to the Lebanese-Israeli border as part of the official UN peace keeping force.

During their four day visit the Coalition delegation brought up a number of issues which will need the attention of the upcoming presidency. Among them were the unclear status of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, which despite a clear resolution from the European parliament to add the group to the EU black list, is still not officially considered a terrorist organisation. According to the Coalition there are no excuses to keep Hezbollah from the terrorist list regardless of the opposition of some European member states governments.