The Federal President’s Office unexpectedly held a round table in Bellevue Palace on the topic “How do we talk about the war in the Middle East?” cancelled. At the event, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to talk about the topic with Meron Mendel, director of the Anne Frank educational institution, as well as political advisor Melody Sucharewicz and journalist Tilo Jung. The round table was scheduled to take place on May 2nd and, like most of the Federal President’s events, was planned for a long time.
In the past few days there has been criticism of the composition of the round table. For example, it was criticized that no Palestinian voice had been invited. The Southgerman newspaper That’s why he asked the Federal President’s Office on Friday morning how the round table came to be filled. In the evening, the SZ office announced that the event would be canceled.
“In the current tense situation,” the event would not serve the goal of “strengthening social peace.”
The statement says: “Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th and the start of the war in the Middle East, the Federal President has invited people to ’round tables’ several times with the aim of countering anti-Semitism, hatred and violence, giving space for the To open up pain on all sides, to enable dialogue and to strengthen social peace.” The Federal President’s Office has “continually invited different interlocutors with different positions, perspectives and backgrounds.”
Topics of the discussions included “among other things the situation in schools, in communities, in civil society and culture”. However, the Federal President’s Office has now “come to the conclusion that the round table planned for May 2nd does not serve the goal of strengthening social peace in the current tense situation.” The event will therefore “not take place at this time”.