Next week, Merkel and her 15 cabinet ministers will participate in the largest-ever bilateral consultations and will kick off official preparations for next year’s celebrations commemorating 50 years since diplomatic relations between the two countries were established.

However, the visit has been overshadowed by reports of the worst crisis in diplomatic ties since Merkel took office almost 10 years ago. A recent BBC poll showed that only 14 percent of Germans today had a positive view of Israel.

“I think German public opinion is actually worse than what’s shown in the polls because Germans don’t publicly state their opinion, they play it down,” said Israel’s former ambassador to Germany and the European Union, Avi Primor.

“The Germans are still very aware of their Nazi past, particularly Merkel who is originally from East Germany, so she has a bad conscience from the past but this is changing and you can’t ignore the growing public opinion,” he told DW.

Primor warns of worsening ties

Primor said there had been a major evolution among Israelis on their view of Germany but the tides had turned in the opposite direction and now Germans were growing increasingly uncomfortable about Israel’s policies.

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