Germany's former ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, levelled unusually sharp criticism at the Israeli government and what he labelled its "disastrous" settlement policy in the occupied West Bank in a media interview released Wednesday.
Israel's policy in the Palestinian territory amounts to "displacement through psychological and physical violence", he was quoted as saying by news weekly Die Zeit.
Modern Germany, at pains to atone for the horrors of the Nazi era and the Holocaust, has long been a steadfast supporter of Israel.
Seibert, the former spokesman of then chancellor Angela Merkel, qualified her stance that "Israel's security is part of Germany's reason of state", noting that this commitment applied to Israel within its internationally recognized borders.
He stressed that "if the very existence of Israel is threatened by a murderous attack by Hamas, by the no less murderous plans of Hezbollah, or by Iran, then we must stand by this state".
"But that does not apply to the settlers in the Jordan Valley," he told Zeit.
"Under international law, these are illegal settlements driven by the ideology that this land belongs solely to us -- that God gave it to us.
"The concept of 'reason of state' does not extend to that; it does not support a sense of superiority over another population."
It was equally necessary, he added, to tell the Palestinians that the right of the Israeli people to live in their own state must be respected.
"We need to make it clear what we mean when we -- rightly -- say that we stand by Israel," said Seibert.
But he added: "That does not mean our support extends to every action taken by the Israeli state -- for instance, the occupation, which is now entering its 60th year."
