Germany’s Merkel kicks off final official visit to Israel

On Oct 10, 2021

Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel will tour Israel’s national Holocaust memorial on Sunday, and hold talks with Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett in her final official visit to the country after 16 years in power.

Angela Merkel, making her eighth visit to Israel since taking office in 2005, is expected to lay a wreath at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem memorial in homage to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.

“German governments have made strong relations with Israel a top priority ever since World War Two.”

However, Merkel has sought to boost bilateral security and economic ties. Germany is one of Israel’s top trading partners.

She is a 67-year-old trained physicist, will also receive an honorary doctorate later from Haifa’s Technion Israel Institute of Technology, in northern Israel.

Merkel had planned to conduct the visit in late August, but cancelled it citing the tense situation in Afghanistan as the United States, Germany and others evacuated personnel ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Kamila/Reuters