Aletho News

German politicians and police on lobby trips to Israel

By Leon Wystrychowski | MEMO | December 23, 2025

Several recent investigative reports in Germany’s alternative media have revealed that Israel has been stepping up efforts to invite German decision-makers in order to exert influence and initiate business deals. The focus is primarily on senior politicians and high-ranking officials within Germany’s security apparatus.

Propaganda trips for politicians

Mondoweiss and Declassified UK recently highlighted that trips to Israel are among the “less well-known” yet widely used tools of the Israel lobby to influence senior politicians. The same appears to be true of Germany, as the left-wing daily Neues Deutschland has now exposed. According to the paper, as recently as last November some 160 politicians from across Germany and from a wide range of parties were invited to Israel as part of what was described as an “influence operation”, where they took part in a five-day programme.

The trip was so clearly a propaganda exercise that even hardline Zionists among the hand-picked guests later complained to the Israeli daily Haaretz that it had amounted to a “one-sided PR operation”. The itinerary included sites where fighting with the Palestinian resistance had taken place on 7 October 2023, the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, a guided tour of a factory belonging to the Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael, and the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, under illegal Israeli control since 1967. Representatives of the Israeli government also reportedly made use of the opportunity to rail against the establishment of a Palestinian state and against a “two-state solution”.

As the authors point out, although the November delegation was the largest of its kind to date, it was by no means the first. Since 2014, politicians from all German parties – with the exception of the far-right AfD – have regularly been invited on similar trips. While such visits in the United States are organised by AIPAC and its affiliates, in the UK and Germany they are handled by organisations such as the European Leadership Network (ELNET) or the so-called Nahost Friedensforum (Middle East Peace Forum). In all three countries, these trips and their funding are frequently obscured, using a mix of legal and legally questionable methods. In 2024, for example, a senior Green Party politician in Germany resigned after it emerged that he had failed to declare such a trip as a donation.

German police on a “study visit” to an apartheid state

These trips are by no means limited to politicians. As reported by the German online outlet Itidal, Berlin’s police chief and newly appointed head of the “Association of Police Presidents in Germany”, Barbara Slowik Meisel, recently travelled to Tel Aviv at the invitation of the Israeli police. She was accompanied by senior officials from across Germany and from various police institutions. The Israeli side covered accommodation and meals, while the travel costs themselves were paid by German taxpayers.

The occasion was reportedly a “Multidisciplinary Emergency Management Commissioner’s Conference”. The visit had been preceded by a trip to Berlin in October by Israel’s police chief, Daniel Levi, during which he extended the invitation. According to Itidal, the conference featured extensive propaganda against the Palestine solidarity movement, which was portrayed as an extension of Hamas. There were also calls for increased repression of dissenting views and information online. In addition, no fewer than twelve arms manufacturers presented their products.

In this case too, the trip was not made public. As Itidal explains, this is not illegal, but it is highly unusual. Despite the frequently proclaimed “German Staatsräson” (reason of state), under which Berlin declares its firm and unconditional support for Israel, there appears to be a clear awareness of the moral and legal problems this entails. There is endless rhetoric about “Israel-related antisemitism” and “solidarity with Israel”; weapons are supplied for a genocide; the illegal occupation and apartheid condemned by the International Court of Justice are financially supported; Israeli expertise in surveillance, crowd control and warfare is utilised; and lobby trips are eagerly undertaken. Yet speaking about all this openly and transparently is something Germany’s political and security elites evidently prefer to avoid.

December 23, 2025 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | Germany, Israel, Palestine, Zionism