Trip of the Parliamentary Group Chairs to Israel
After their trip to Israel the chairs of DIE LINKE parliamentary group, Sahra Wagenknecht and Dietmar Bartsch conclude:
„We visited this country to listen and show our interest. We wanted to understand which problems Israel has to grapple with and how it intends to cope with them. This does not only apply to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its consequences for the development of Israelian society, but also to social problems as unemployment, education, pensions and the housing market crisis. Many of these societal problems are problems which exist in other democracies, like the German federal republic, as well. For us as leftists this is also important because especially in times of crisis racist and anti-Semitic ressentiments are growingly expressed in Germany. We also provided information about how our party and parliamentary group debate about the topic Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The whole spread of questions was made subject of all our talks.
During the first day of our stay we had intensive meetings and talks at the Knesset with MP Dov Khenin (Hadash), Michael Rozin (Meretz), Nachman Shai (Labor Party, Chair of the German-Israeli parliamentary group in the Knesset), and Michael B. Oren (Kalanu). At another meeting we came together with the whole left group Hadash and the United List. Subsequently, we were accompanied by Tsafrir Cohen, leader of the Israel office of the Rosa-Luxemburg foundation in Tel Aviv to visit with representatives of the organisations Breaking the Silence, Peace now, as well B'Tselem at the left think tank Molad. The left in Israel, being critically opposed to the occupation policy, needs more support and international solidarity. In future, we want to engage even more for this aim and hope to welcome representatives of Meretz, the United List, and the organisations Breaking the Silence, Peace now, as well as B'Tselem soon in Berlin.
On the second day ouf our Israel journey we visited the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and laid down a wreath bearing the inscription „The murdered victims are reminder and obligation to us“. The Holocaust imposes a special obligation for DIE LINKE in Germany for Israel's right to exist. Furthermore, DIE LINKE stands for the right of the Palestinians for their own state. Israel, to DIE LINKE, is the legitimate place of the autonomy of the Jewish people. Altogether, we campaign for a two-state solution based on the borders of 1967.
We expressed this position during our talk with Israeli President Rivlin. We also made clear our critical view on the Israeli settlement policy and our concern about the governmental pressure on Israeli non-governmental organisations as well as parliamentarians, who oppose the Israeli settlement policy in the Palestinian territories. We used the French peace initiative as an opportunity to express our opinion that the peace process needs to be revived. Despite controversial opinions the meeting was held in an open and friendly atmosphere.“