JERUSALEM (EJP)---German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the first foreign head of government to address the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on Tuesday afternoon, marking the end of her three-day visit to Israel.
The Knesset has changed its regulations which stipulate that only a head of state, and not a head of government, may be invited to address the parliament. Thus far, a number of heads of state, including two German presidents and most notably Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1977, did so.
The invitation to address the parliament was "a very important step in the development of German-Israeli relations", the 53-year-old Merkel said after meeting her Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres early on Tuesday.
But Merkel's plans to make her speech in German has ruffled some feathers in Israel, where memories of the Nazis' murder of six million Jews during World War II run deep.
Five MPs plan to stay away from the parliament in protest while other lawmakers, including at least one Holocaust survivor, have criticised the plans as "populist".
"I know the last sounds heard by my grandparents and my uncles whom I have not known were those of the German language," said Arieh Eldad, an MP of the National Union-National Religious Party.
Israel Radio quoted Shelly Yachimovich, of the coalition Labour Party, as saying she would stay absent from the speech because it was "insensitive" toward Holocaust survivors to hold it in German, "the language of their torturers - SS officers, camp commanders and the Gestapo."
Refusal to buy German products
Many Israelis still refuse to buy German products and refuse to participate in any event where German is spoken.
German being spoken inside the Israeli parliament have set off angry protests before in the Jewish state.
When Johannes Rau became the first German head of state to address the Knesset in 2000, he did so in German and several Israeli MPs stormed out in protest.
His successor Horst Koehler received a warmer reception five years later and included several sentences in Hebrew in his speech.
On the other hand there are plenty of Israelis who love the German language and Germans are often surprised at the positive reaction to their language in the Jewish state.
The head of the Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv, Georg Blochmann, said there is a "continuously growing interest" in German in Israel, particularly among the younger generation.
They are completely unbiased towards the language and have an "authentic interest." Many of them want to spend a study year in Germany.
In another indication of how the two countries are drawing closer together, on Monday morning 17 German and Israeli ministers, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Merkel, held a joint cabinet session, to discuss projects in such fields as defence, education ad the environment.
Israel and Germany have agreed to hold similar consultations on a regular basis, meeting next in Berlin in 2009. Germany has had such annual consultations only with European countries including France, Italy, Poland and Russia.
