Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi embarked on his first official visit abroad to Berlin on Wednesday, where he is set to meet with European Union foreign ministers.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas invited Ashkenazi to Thursday’s conference of their EU counterparts.
Ashkenazi met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier soon after his arrival, and thanked him for Germany’s recognition of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. He also updated Steinmeier on Israel’s normalization with the United Arab Emirates.
The foreign minister also called on Germany to join the effort to stop the UN arms embargo from running out in October.
Ashkenazi also spoke at a ceremony at Platform 17 in Berlin’s Grunewald Station, where there is a memorial marking Nazi Germany’s deportation of more than 55,000 Jews. He was joined by Israeli Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff, Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz and representatives of the German Jewish community.
“I stand here as the foreign minister of the government of Israel and the former IDF chief of staff,” Ashkenazi said. “Jews will never again be sent to their death because they are Jewish. Never again.”
Ashkenazi warned that there are still those who wish to eliminate the Jewish people, pointing to Iran.
“We will never again stand defenseless, left at the mercy of others,” he said. “We will defend our sons and daughters while holding a sword in one hand and an olive branch in the other.”
On Thursday, Ashkenazi and Maas plan to visit the Wannsee Villa, where the Nazi “Final Solution” of genocide of the Jewish people was formulated.
After that, they will hold a work meeting with German and Israeli Foreign Ministry staff, before attending the meeting of EU foreign ministers.