BERLIN (EJP)---The new head of Germany’s Jewish community has criticised the German government for what she called its “appeasement” policy towards Iran in order to preserve its economic interests in this country.

Charlotte Knobloch said she was angry that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier last Saturday met with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki without officially denouncing the anti-Israel and Holocaust denial rhetoric of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

She made the remarks at a one-day meeting of the US-based World Jewish Congress Wednesday in Berlin on Wednesday.

"What he has said about Israel is considered a punishable offence here and there can be no discussion until that has been retracted,” she said.

“The Islamic republic must be isolated and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad forced to retract repeated calls for Israel to be wiped off the map,” she added.

Knobloch was elected last month at the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the main organisation representing Germany's 120,000-strong Jewish community. She succeeded the late Paul Spiegel.

The talks between Steinmeier and Mottaki on Iran’s nulcear problem were "initiated by the Iranians," according to a foreign ministry spokesman.

Iranian Jews threatened

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The German government has not reacted to Knobloch's comments, but on numerous previous occasions it has denounced Ahmadinejad's remarks against Israel and on the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, the Jewish minority in Iran “is in a dire position”, Knobloch said.

"The Jewish community there is threatened," she said, adding that 15 Jews were currently in prison for alleged spying activities.

The World Jewish Congress, an umbrella group for 60 Jewish organisations from all over the world, has had only limited contact with the Iranian community.

"They were at one of our meetings in the past and it seemed to me as if they wanted to speak out but didn't dare," Knobloch, who is also the WJC’s vice-president, said. "They were mute."

Although there has been no recent request on the part of Iran’s government to meet with Jewish leaders, the WJC indicated that Jewish organisations would not be willing to negotiate with Iranian authorities until they, for the very least, take back Holocaust denial claims.

WJC chairman, Israel Singer, called Iran a “threat to Europe, Israel and the rest of the world”. Singer’s general secretary, Stephan Herbits, called Iran’s stance “aggressive” and cautioned civilised people, around the world, "to be vigilant."

Speaking to the press, Charlotte Knobloch said that she could not understand why German police cars could not be draped with German flags, during the World Cup matches - countering recent claims that she is too much focused solely on Jews, in particular on Iran’s stance on Israel – unlike her predecessors who also spoke for all minority groups. Last week, the German parliament has forbidden all civil servants from displaying any form of patriotism during the World Cup, for fear of isolating minority groups. Critics of the parliamentary legislation, such as Knobloch, fear that curbing healthy forms of patriotism are factors that could contribute to racism and anti-Semitism, even if latently.

Nevertheless, Singer suggested that the WJC was also seeking to learn about the position of Iran’s 25,000 strong Jewish community before formulating any final conclusions on the issue.

But this is unlikely: Jews in Iran are not allowed to communicate with Jewish groups outside of the country if they are in favour of a state of Israel. And many Jews in Iran are only religiously or politically connected to Israel.

Prominent Jewish and non-Jewish figures

Wednesday's meeting, the first of the WJC in Berlin, was attended by prominent non-WJC members and non-Jewish figures, including former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, former Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky, former European Parliament president and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma (Gypsy).

Rose’s organisation has been campaigning the German government for years, with unyielding support from the Central Council of Jews, for a memorial and financial compensation in recognition of Nazi atrocities.

Patrick Desbois, the secretary general of France's Catholic Bishops Committee for Relations with Jews, said the meeting marked the first time that the Jewish community had called on public figures from all faiths to help it formulate policies.

"It is without precedent," he told AFP.

Singer said it had agreed to have a range of meetings with people it considered allies to search for ways to shape international policy on issues like Iran.

The most important issues for Jews are perhaps also at the moment the most important issues for the world. We have allies and friends because we have people who have the same problems," he said

The Berlin meeting was a follow-up to the OCDE's conference on anti-Semitism which was held in the German capital two years ago.