German Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to cancel a summit between the Israeli and German governments that was scheduled for May 9th. The official reason given was the proximity to the elections that will be held in Germany in September, but officials in Jerusalem believe that the cancellation was due to an additional reason: ‘the dissatisfaction by officials in Berlin with the legalization law’, which effectively legalizes the construction of Israeli West Bank settlements on private Palestinian land. The official statement by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon stressed that the request to postpone the meeting came from the German side, due to timetable considerations.
That said, the German decision comes at a time when the European Union also decided to postpone its meeting of the body managing Israeli-European relations, following the enactment of the legalization law, which EU Foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned that if the law was implemented, it would cross a new and dangerous threshold. In response to the international condemnations, Israeli officials emphasized that the law reflects a just legal principle, in which it adheres to the principle of compensation, which effectively creates the ‘right justice’ between the Palestinians and the Jewish settlers.