Earlier this year, German officials proposed celebrating 40 years of German-Israeli diplomatic relations by making Jerusalem and Berlin sister cities. Everyone thought that was a great idea – except the elected representatives of the city of Berlin:
A proposal to sign a sister cities agreement between Berlin and Jerusalem was rejected by officials in the German capital, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Thursday… the proposal was turned down by the Berlin city council on the grounds that Germany does not officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
It looks like Jerusalem officials were less then interested in the deal in the first place, but that’s not the point – the point is the reason that Berlin gave for rejecting the deal on their end. One might suggest that failing to recognize Israel’s capital as Israel’s capital is more a problem with Germany than with Israel – and that therefore it’s incumbent upon Germans to find a way around the international community’s unprecedented refusal to let a nation state choose its own capital city. But then one would be disqualifying oneself from a career as a diplomat.
