Merkel honors Holocaust victims, vows German commitment to Israel

JERUSALEM－Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood on Sunday in Jerusalem with her head bowed over the buried ashes of Jews killed in Nazi death camps, and pledged Germany would preserve a post-Holocaust commitment to Israel's security.

Merkel, on her eighth and final visit to Israel as she concludes her 16-year term, earlier held talks with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Merkel arrived at the Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv late on Saturday as a guest of Bennett, who ended Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule this June.

Germany has been a leading postwar European ally of Israel, and Merkel has sought to cultivate security and economic ties.

"I want to use this opportunity to emphasize that the topic of Israel's security will always be of central importance and a central topic of every German government," she told Bennett at a private meeting, according to a transcript issued by his office.

Attending a later session of Bennett's cabinet, Merkel said: "The history of the Shoah (Holocaust) is a singular event for which we continue to bear responsibility in every phase of history, including in the future."

At Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II, Merkel rekindled an eternal flame in its Hall of Remembrance.

Expression of trust

She then placed a wreath on a slab under which ashes from extermination camps, death camps and other killing fields are buried, and stood in silence, her head bowed.

Speaking outside the chamber, Merkel pointed to a resurgence of Jewish life in Germany, calling it "an expression of trust (that) compels us to stand up with determination against anti-Semitism, hatred and violence every day anew".

Bennett, for his part, thanked Merkel for the warm relations with Israel that she has cultivated during her term, expressing his new government's wish to strengthen the ties "even more in business relations, science, education, health and of course, in security".

Merkel met Bennett for a private meeting, in which they discussed regional issues, including Iran, according to Bennett's office.

She also participated in a special cabinet meeting and has scheduled meetings with Israel's President Isaac Herzog and technology entrepreneurs.

Agencies - Xinhua