Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled talks on Tuesday with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel after the visiting diplomat declined to call off meetings with rights groups critical of Israel’s government, an official said.
The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the meeting was cancelled after Gabriel decided to go ahead with talks with Israeli rights groups Breaking The Silence and B’Tselem.
Breaking The Silence seeks to document alleged Israeli military abuses in the Palestinian territories, while B’Tselem has worked on a range of issues and has strongly opposed Israeli settlement building.
Gabriel earlier told journalists in Ramallah, where he held talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, that he had still hoped to meet Netanyahu and the rights groups.
He had also told German public television station ZDF that a decision to cancel the meeting would be “extremely regrettable.”
“It is completely normal that we speak with civil society representatives during a visit abroad,” he said.
Gabriel added that it would be “unthinkable” to cancel a meeting with Netanyahu if he met critics of the German government during a visit to Germany.
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