berlin brief

Israel’s secret service is suspected to have killed a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai in January 2010. According to the Dubai police, one of the 11 members of the hit squad that allegedly were Mossad agents carried a German passport.

The berlinbrief wrote about the case on 20 February 2010.

The man known as Uri Brodsky was arrested in Poland in June under a German arrest warrant. Brodsky was then handed over to the German authorities. However, a court in Cologne, where the passport he used in the Dubai killing was issued, set him free on bail on Friday.

The court could only charge him for forgery, as spying against Germany is not a crime under Polish law.

Compared to reactions by the then UK government and the coverage the incident got in the UK, the case did not create much publicity in Germany.

Take a look at the International Herald Tribune and Haaretz.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron made it very clear on a recent visit to Turkey: He wants the country to become an EU member soon.

Cameron implicitly criticized his conservative colleagues on the continent, Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy, who have adopted a cautious approach despite accession negotiations already being under way for a while now.

Merkel has stated on numerous occasions that while “pacta sunt servanda” – i.e. Germany supports the accession negotiations – she believes a “privileged partnership” with the EU would be a more suitable format for Turkey.

A prominent voice of Merkel’s CDU party, however, is speaking out energetically for Turkish accession now:

Ruprecht Polenz, a respected foreign policy expert and the Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, has published a book entitled “Better for both: Turkey belongs in the EU”.

Published by Körber Foundation, whose Berlin office is very active on foreign policy issues of the wider Middle East, the book is a strong plea against the model of a privileged partnership that Chancellor Merkel has been adovacting.

Qantara.de spoke to Ruprecht Polenz. Read the interview here.

Tsipi Livni, Israel’s former Foreign Minister and the head of the Kadima party, came to Berlin last week where she met with Foreign Minister Westerwelle. Livni is touring Western capitals to fight, as she said in a speech in Berlin, the deligitimization of the Jewish State of Israel in the free world.

Ms Livni spoke at the Deutsche Parlamentarische Gesellschaft (German Parliamentary Society) on 24 March 2010, at an event hosted by NAFFO (Nahost Friedens Forum/Middle East Peace Forum). (more…)

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited Berlin on 15-16 March 2010 to meet with Chancellor Merkel, Foreign Minister Westerwelle and members of the Bundestag. Hariri also particpated in a briefing hosted by Körber Foundation’s Berlin office.

Germany is taking part in the naval component of the UNIFIL mission on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Last December, however, the Bundestag only extended the mandate for the German troops for another six months. While the UN’s mandate expands until August 2010, the Bundestag restricted the German contribution to June 2010 and reduced the number of soldiers from 1200 to 800.

In June, there will have to be another vote to extend the mission. So perhaps a wise choice for Hariri to come to Berlin and ask for a continued support. (more…)

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt paid a visit to Chancellor Merkel in Berlin last week.

Mubarak came to Germany to have a surgery carried out at Heidelberg university hospital. On this occasion, he made a stop over in Berlin.

With national approaching in Egypt later this year, I believe the Egyptian President’s mission at the moment is to explain to Western allies the need for stability in Egypt, the largest country in the Arab world. Mubarak will use his access to Western leaders in the months to come to calm down criticism towards the Egyptian authorities coming down hard on the opposition, especially the semi-legal Muslim Brotherhood movement and independent journalists and bloggers.

Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) not only work hard to keep the opposition parties weak and at odds with each other; Mubarak also wants to keep a firm hand on who will become the next President of Egypt in the 2011 elections. It looks like in 2011, after 30 years in power, Mubarak will eventually decide to leave the presidential office. But whoever will make it into his seat, I believe one thing for sure: The decision on whom to give a chance will be taken by President Mubarak himself.

berlinbrief will follow up on the German government’s policy towards the events surrounding the parliamentary and presidential elections in Egypt in the coming months.

I found two pieces on German foreign policy in the international media yesterday that I want to draw your attention to.

The first one was in the FT by Bertrand Benoit and Daniel Dombey, entitled “German concerns threaten 9/11 trial evidence”. The authors write:

“Berlin will seek to block evidence collected by German investigators about the September 11 attacks from being used to secure the death penalty in the trial of five alleged conspirators in New York.

The stance could strain relations between chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and the Obama administration.”

Read the full text here (FT, 25 November 2009).

The second piece is by Benjamin Weinthal on Germany and Iran and was published in the Weekly Standard. Weinthal writes:

“Merkel’s new governing coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) might very well bring us Act II of Germany’s impotent Iran foreign policy. The FDP, the party of Germany’s new foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, vehemently rejects curtailing German-Iranian trade, and during the 2002 federal election Westerwelle tolerated the late Jürgen Möllemann’s (a top FDP politician) mass-mailing of election flyers bashing former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Möllemann’s campaign strategy was widely viewed as the first public use of anti-Semitism to win over voters since the Hitler movement. (more…)

“Wirtschaftsplattform Irak”, an online platform in both German and Arabic bringing together business in Germany and Iraq, has just been awarded one of the winners of the “365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas” Contest.

The website contains detailed information on the legal framework, on economic regulations and on current issues related to the rebuilding and development of Iraq.

With the award, Wirtschaftsplattform Irak (WPI) is now part of a nationwide network of ‘Selected Landmarks’, whose creativity, expertise and passion make Germany the “Land of Ideas”.

Wirtschaftsplattform Irak was developed by media in cooperation and transition (mict), a Berlin-based NGO that has been working in Iraq for many years.

mict is also the creative head behind “NIQASH“, a trilingual website in Arabic, English and Kurdish on politics, media and culture in Iraq.

The murder of a young Egyptian woman in a German court in July 2009 led to strong reactions in Egypt and the world. Marwa El Sherbini, a pharmacist living in Germany with her family, was brutally stabbed to death in front of the eyes of her husband and her 3-years-old son in a courtroom in Dresden by a German of Russian origin.

The man was taken to court because he had attacked the young Egyptian with anti-Islamic language on a playground. On 11 November, 2009, El Sherbini’s murderer was sentenced to life long jail.

On a visit to London, the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle made a statement on the case: “I welcome this verdict by the independent German judicial system, showing that violence, racial hatred and intolerance have no place in Germany.”

In July, Germany was criticized for what was seen as a lukewarm reaction to the murder not only by Egyptians but by Muslims across the world.

Here’s some of the international media reaction on the verdict:

German Convicted of Muslim Murder (Al Jazeera English, 11 November 2009).

Egypt Gripped by ‘Veil Martyr’ Trial (BBC News, 11 November 2009).

Marwa El Sherbini’s Murderer Gets Life Sentence (Daily News Egypt, 11 November 2009).

Life Sentence Handed Down in Dresden ‘Veil Martyr’ Murder Case (DW-World.de, 11 November 2009, with an audio interview on reactions in Egypt)

Egypt Welcomes Life Sentence for Killing in German Court (IHT, 12 November 2009).

Germany: Man Convicted of Marwa al-Sherbini’s Court Murder (The Huffington Post, 12 November 2009).