Tel Aviv During his political talks in Berlin on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waved clear criticism. Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed concern about the planned judicial reform. The independence of the judiciary is “a great democratic good,” said Scholz at a press conference with Netanyahu.
It is good that Netanyahu is seeking dialogue with many different groups in society. It is important to find “the broadest possible consensus” on the issue. The Chancellor expressed the hope that the compromise proposal by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog is not yet off the table.
Because of domestic political problems, Netanyahu had to shorten his visit this Thursday anyway – demonstrators in Israel had even threatened to prevent his departure to Germany.
Netanyahu had rejected a compromise proposal by President Isaac Herzog that morning. Herzog warned in drastic words of an escalation of violence. Anyone who believes that a civil war is out of the question “does not know what they are talking about,” he said.
In Berlin, Netanyahu encountered a generally pro-Israel attitude. But the development of the nationalist-religious coalition under Netanyahu’s leadership with the dismantling of judicial rights and the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories is also viewed very critically in the federal government.
Nevertheless, the German government is currently planning to expand military cooperation with Israel. Netanyahu said he also discussed possibilities with the chancellor to sell the Arrow 3 air defense system to Germany. Scholz emphasized that Germany has an interest in integrating Arrow 3 into the planned “European Sky Shield”.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently got involved in the domestic political debate. The government’s planned restructuring of the rule of law worries him, he said – precisely because the Germans have always looked with admiration at the strong and lively rule of law in Israel.
These are tones greeted with goodwill by Israel’s high-tech industries. The companies have long worried about their location and have criticized the actions of the coalition government. No wonder they are increasingly relying on pressure from abroad. Steinmeier and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also play a role in this.
Netanyahu’s visit to Berlin has also been accompanied by pro-Palestinian protests.
(Photo: dpa)
Charme Rykower from the German-Israeli Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Tel Aviv is concerned about the developments. She says she has not yet felt any negative effects on economic cooperation with German companies. Although she has observed increased international interest in the political turbulence, word has not yet got around in Germany about how damaging the reforms can be.
“It’s only now that this realization is slowly catching on,” says Rykower. Netanyahu’s current visit will make the effects of the judicial reform more tangible in Berlin. Once the reforms have been passed by parliament, Rykower believes, “German companies will think twice or three times about whether they still want to get involved here”.
However, she does not believe that they will withdraw from Israel completely, since the start-up nation is a leader in many areas of digitization and renewable energies.
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Andrea Frahm, who heads the Israel office of the Helmholtz Association of German research centers and represents the Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in Israel, is also concerned about the Israeli government’s plans. “But the economic and scientific interest in Israel is still unchecked,” she says.
At the “Future Day for SMEs” organized by the Federal Association of SMEs in Berlin last week, Israel was one of the most popular countries. From May to November the calendar is already full of delegation visits from Germany and the second edition of the “Innovation Summit” in Tel Aviv is planned for July.
A broad protest front has formed against the plans of Netanyahu’s governing coalition. The demonstrators fear that democracy will be undermined.
(Photo: Reuters)
On the other hand, she knows from many Israeli colleagues and friends that they want to leave the country and are preparing their exit strategy: “The number of requests in the local European consulates for a second passport has increased significantly in recent months.”
He sees no slowdown in activity between Israeli tech companies and German firms, says Amir Mizroch, communications consultant for a company called Trigo, which is converting supermarkets into cashless digital stores.
Trigo has opened branches at Rewe, Aldi Nord and Netto in Germany. “German industry benefits greatly from cooperation with Israeli start-ups and vice versa,” emphasizes Mizroch, who previously brought Israeli start-ups together with German medium-sized companies.
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Lisya Bahar, founder of the Catalyst IV Fund, is still confident, also because she believes that there will be no constitutional crisis in Israel. In addition, commitments in the high-tech industry are long-term, she says, which is why the industry is hardly influenced by political mood swings.
None of her investors have pulled out, she says. The planning for the GoforIsrael conference, which is to take place in May, is also still going according to plan. But, says Bahar, “new investors will be more cautious and may switch to other countries.”
It’s easy to destroy what has grown over the years, says an innovation consultant in Tel Aviv who maintains contacts with European investors. “This thing that we’ve been building for many years can fall over in a second and fall into a chasm that we won’t be able to get out of,” warns Gigi Levy-Weiss, partner at venture capital fund NFX.
More: SVB bankruptcy puts Israel’s tech scene under pressure.