The Foreign Ministry has rejected allegations of hostility towards the German UN ambassador Christoph Heusgen. It was "outlandish" to associate Heusgen with anti-Semitism, said a spokesman for the Foreign Office. When the diplomat at the UN in New York participates in voting on resolutions related to Israel, he does so expressly "on the instructions of the Federal Government". The speaker emphasized that he made his statement to Heusgen on behalf of Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) and the entire federal government.
The accusation of anti-Semitism had raised the Simon Wiesenthal Center against Heusgen. In a list of the ten most serious cases of anti-Semitic behavior in 2019, the center topped German diplomats in seventh place. The list, which is published every December, was reported by the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
The Wiesenthal Center stated that Heusgen voted for 16 anti-Israeli submissions in 2018 at the UN and 2019 for nine. In addition, in a meeting on the Middle East conflict on 26 March, the diplomat in the UN Security Council compared Hamas rocket attacks on Israel with Israeli settlement construction in the Palestinian territories.
The Federal Foreign Office pointed out that Heusgen's voting behavior expressed "the position of the Federal Government on the Middle East conflict". Heusgen represents the attitude of the Federal Government in all votes and acts on instructions from Berlin. This includes the German commitment to a negotiated two-state solution, which has its own Palestinian state goal. Deputy Speaker Ulrike Demmer also rejected the allegations against Heusgen. The diplomat had worked "for years and with great passion against anti-Semitism".
The United Nations General Assembly regularly adopts resolutions criticizing Israel for its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories. The templates are usually found in the body significant majorities. Unlike in the Security Council, there is no veto right of individual members in the General Assembly.