In Israel, a parliamentary committee has approved next week's address to the Knesset by German chancellor Angela Merkel. The committee voted to allow the German head of government to deliver a speech in the plenum, though generally that privilege is reserved for foreign heads of state rather than government. Merkel's case was particularly controversial as she plans to speak in German – a language many in Israel still associate with the Holocaust.
Two right-wing lawmakers in the Knesset committee voiced opposition to Merkel's appearance but were outvoted. Yoel Hasson, a lawmaker with prime minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima Party, argued that "having the German chancellor stand at the podium, in the parliament of the Jewish people in the sovereign state of the Jews, is a big thing, of major significance – a great victory for the Jewish people."
When Germany’s president Horst Köhler addressed the Knesset during a 2005 visit, he also spoke in German, although he prefaced the speech with a greeting in Hebrew.
