B’nai B’rith Leaders Ask Bonn to End Arms Limits for Israel

A B’nai B’rith delegation on a recent visit here asked the German government to remove Israel from a list of countries to which arms shipments and delicate technology transfer is restricted.

Kent Schiner, international president of B’nai B’rith, made the request at a meeting with Friedrich Bohl, head of the Federal Chancery.

Schiner and other members of the delegation said they were deeply disturbed by the fact that Israel was on the list, together with countries like Libya, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Arms and technology sales to countries on the so-called “H-list” are approved only after careful procedures involving the permission of a special Cabinet committee.

Citing moral and political reasons, the delegation members suggested to Bohl that there should be a way to handle the matter in a way that would not be offensive to Israel as a democratic country with close relations with Germany.

Bohl defended his country’s policies, explaining that the list was a technical issue and that Israel’s inclusion on it by no means stigmatized Israel or equated it with other countries on the list.

Bohl added that Germany proved during the Persian Gulf War that it was sensitive to Israel’s defense needs and had been prepared to help accordingly.

The 12-member B’nai B’rith delegation arrived in Germany at the invitation of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce.

The main topics of discussions in five days of meetings with political and business leaders have been right-wing extremism in Germany, violence against foreigners and economic developments in the former East Germany.