Germany open to reopening Holocaust reparations if Israel wants

Nov 14, 2007, 11:55 GMT

Berlin - The German government is open to the possibility of reopening the issue of Holocaust reparations if the Israeli government makes a formal request, an official spokesman said in Berlin Wednesday.

Government spokesman Thomas Steg was responding to comments that Israeli Pensions Minister Rafi Eitan made to an Israeli newspaper last week.

'If the Israeli government wants to talk formally to the German government, we will not refuse to hold talks of this nature,' Steg said in answer to a question.

He noted the 'migration phenomenon' that took place after the collapse of the Soviet Union when many Jews left Russia and the former Soviet republics for Israel and remarked that this could not have been foreseen in the original agreement struck in the 1950s.

Steg stressed that there had as yet been no formal approach from Israel on the matter.

A spokesman for German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Schaeuble would not hold talks on the issue when he visits Israel Thursday and Friday.

Eitan said that Israel wanted to reopen the 1952 Luxembourg Agreement with Germany granting reparations for Holocaust survivors in remarks published on Friday last week.

Subsequently his spokeswoman, Elle Baror, said the minister did not wish to reopen the agreement, but rather wanted teams from Israel and Germany to meet in order to discuss ways of finding money to cover expenses which were not taken into account when the original deals were signed.