Gerhard Schroeder, chairman of the West German Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee and former Minister of Defense, said here last night that his country should not supply military equipment to Israel. Schroeder told a press conference that he favored continuing close relations between West Germany and Israel but would prefer to see them limited to economic and cultural matters. “Israel should seek military aid from countries less involved with their past,” he said, adding that the issue was very delicate. The West German diplomat is visiting Israel at the government’s invitation. The invitation brought protests from various groups because of Schroeder’s past membership in the Nazi Party and the SA (Stormtroopers).
A Haifa student, Gideon Spiro, demanded that Schroeder be detained for trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. Israel’s Attorney General Meir Shamgar refused to act on this demand. Asked by newsmen about the charges against him. Schroeder said, “I did not come to Israel to discuss my biography. There is nothing in my past activity–public or personal–that could prevent me from accepting the invitation of the Israeli government to visit Israel.” Schroeder has been accused of refusing to send gas masks to Israel during the tense period prior to the 1967 Six-Day War. He was then Defense Minister. Schroeder explained last night that gas masks were in short supply in the West German Army at the time, but said he had not objected to taking them from the civil defense network to send to Israel.
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