Merkel given honorary doctorate at Haifa University during Mideast trip
670 views · Published 9 October 2018 · 3:50 · Indexed 29 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(4 Oct 2018) German Chancellor Angela Merkel was granted an honorary doctorate from Haifa University and answered questions from local students at ceremony in Jerusalem on Thursday. Germany is Israel's largest trading partner in Europe and for the past few decades has been perhaps its staunchest supporter. But differences have been exacerbated following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, particularly regarding Israel's policies toward Iran and the Palestinians. Trump has largely refrained from criticizing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank - a frequent European complaint - recognized Jerusalem as its capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there. He also has cut funding to the Palestinians and fully pinned the blame for stalled Mideast peace talks on them. In contrast, Merkel has continued to champion the traditional approach to Middle East peacemaking, calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state and for Israel to refrain from unilateral steps to undermine its prospect. Germany has also been among the European countries calling on Israel to refrain from carrying out its plans to demolish a West Bank hamlet that Israel says was illegally built. Israel has offered to resettle the 180 Bedouin Palestinian residents of the Khan al-Ahmar encampment a few miles (kilometers) away. But Palestinians and their European backers say the demolition is aimed at displacing Palestinians in favor of settlement expansion and would deal a devastating blow to hopes for Palestinian statehood. Israel's Supreme Court recently rejected a final appeal against the plans and residents are bracing for the move any day. Merkel, however, strongly denied that she was considering calling off the trip if it were to go forward. "It's an Israeli decision, and our trip is not influenced by this," she told the university students in Jerusalem. "One can have a difference of opinions about this, the settlement policy, and I have critical comments to make about this because I believe in a two-state solution, but this is a different matter." Merkel also maintains that Israel will be best served by keeping the Iranian nuclear deal intact, contradicting met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand that it be scraped and stiff sanctions imposed instead. Merkel is in Israel for the latest in a series of joint government consultations expected to focus on economic issues, with an emphasis on innovation, technology and development projects. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/4d471551ec3c09b1cc1a4f537bff5ace
