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The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knoblauch, warned against a strengthening of the anti-Israeli opinion in the country but emphasized that relations continue to be positive.
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BERLIN (AFP-EJP)---Two out of three Germans believe that 60 years after its foundation, Israel is today “a state like another” and that Germany's period of atonement for the Holocaust should be over, according to a survey published earlier this week by the daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
A total of 64% Germans think that Israel does not have a "special status," against 33% who believe the opposite, according to the survey conducted by the Forsa institute among 1,009 people.
Some 56% of the Germans think that Israel does not have a particular role to play in Germany’s foreign policy, while 36% think the opposite because the country's historical responsibility for the Holocaust.
The survey was published in the framework of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel.
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knoblauch, has warned, in an interview with the same Berlin newspaper, against a strengthening of the anti-Israeli opinion in the country while emphasizing that relations continue to be positive.
"There are certain people who tend more and more to reject Israel," she deplored.
Germany is generally believed to be among Israel's staunchest supporters in Europe.
In March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought half of her government to Jerusalem for an unprecedented meeting with Israeli ministers and addressed the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in German.
