JERUSALEM (JTA) — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told an audience at Hebrew University in Jerusalem that diverse voices are the “oxygen of democracy.”

Steinmeier, who met earlier in the day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was criticizing the prime minister for cancelling a meeting last month with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel after he refused to cancel a meeting with representatives of B’Tselem, a human rights watchdog, and Breaking the Silence, a veterans’ group that alleges the Israeli army abuses Palestinians. There was no media coverage of Gabriel’s meeting with the left-wing NGOs and he did not comment on the meetings after they took place.

“I believe that civil-society organizations which are part of the social debate deserve our respect as democrats, even when they take a critical view of a government – in Germany, but also here in Israel,” Steinmeier also said.

Steinmeier said that many had warned him that this was the wrong time to visit Israel, particularly in light of the Gabriel incident.

“Preserving the miracle that is this friendship is an unshakable task incumbent on us Germans. It was therefore clear to me that my first trip outside Europe as federal president would take me here to Israel. The events of the past two weeks have done nothing to change this – on the contrary, these discussions have strengthened my resolve to talk about democracy here in Israel,” Steinmeier said.

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