Germany: Israeli ambassador shuns contact with far-right AfD

Alexander Gauland (R), co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, shakes hands with Thuringia’s AfD co-leader Bjoern Hoecke, head of the party’s “Der Fluegel” wing, during a Mayday rally on Labour Day, May 1, 2019 in Erfurt, eastern Germany. (File/AFP/Bodo Schackow)

• Israel’s ambassador to Germany says the far-right politicians have said things insulting to Jews
• The ambassador says it’s difficult for him to imagine any interaction with those who feel nostalgia for Germany’s past

BERLIN: The Israeli ambassador to Germany says he is avoiding any contact with the far-right Alternative for Germany party because their leaders have said things that are “highly insulting for Jews, for Israel and for the entire issue of the Holocaust.”
Jeremey Issacharoff told German news agency dpa Sunday it is very difficult for him to imagine any interaction with those who feel nostalgia for Germany’s past.
During the Nazis’ reign from 1933-45, the Germans organized and participated in the genocide of 6 million Jews in Europe.
Party leader Alexander Gauland has referred to the time of Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship as a “speck of bird poop” in Germany’s history, while Bjoern Hoecke, a powerful party leader in the east, suggested it’s time for the country to stop atoning for its Nazi past.