Germany’s president pledged support for Israel and expressed gratitude for the revival of Jewish life in his country.
“Germany and Israel enjoy a partnership based on trust,” Horst Kohler said in a statement in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday distributed by the German embassy in Washington. “In light of the unparalleled crime of the Shoah, the murder of millions of Jews committed by Germans, that by no means can be taken for granted.”
Germans “must raise their voices against denial or trivialization of the Shoah and against intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism,” Kohler said. “The right of the State of Israel to exist is and will remain a constituent element of German policy.”
Kohler also said he was “very grateful that Jewish life, the creativity and vitality of which for a millennium has been a major part of German culture, is flourishing in Germany again.”
He called for a continuation of youth exchanges between the two countries. Kohler also said that this year, he and Israeli President Shimon Peres will launch the German-Israeli Future Forum, “which will bring young Germans and Israelis in business, science and culture even closer together.”
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