Israel's ambassador to Germany Wednesday welcomed plans by the Bundestag, the German parliament, to pass a cross-party resolution on protecting the right to religious circumcision, after a court in Cologne ruled it a criminal act.
Ambassador Yacov Hadas-Handelsman told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung he was "confident that a solution will be found and implemented that would serve religious freedom".
He said he believed all relevant institutions in Germany were aware of the problem, as deputies from across the political spectrum planned to pass a motion Thursday calling for a draft law by autumn to clarify the situation.
Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told her party on Monday that the country risked becoming a "laughing stock" over the court ruling in June that religious circumcision was tantamount to grievous bodily harm.
"I do not want Germany to be the only country in the world where Jews cannot practise their rituals. Otherwise we will become a laughing stock," the Bild daily quoted Merkel as telling a closed meeting of her Christian Democrats (CDU).
Her spokesman Steffen Seibert reiterated Berlin's determination to clear up the legal standing for religious circumcision, following an outcry over the judgement both at home and abroad.
"We are aware that the Jewish religion stipulates an early circumcision, on the eighth day," Seibert told a news conference.
"We do not want to wait until Jewish children born now are years old before they can be legally circumcised in Germany," he added.
"Therefore we have said that we want a rapid solution because we are aware of our responsibilities and we also believe that at least certain parts of the world are looking to Germany on this question," said Seibert.
Diplomats admit that the ruling has proved "disastrous" to Germany's international image, particularly in light of its Nazi past, following uproar from religious and political leaders in Israel as well as Muslim countries.
Joerg van Essen, parliamentary floor leader of Merkel's junior coalition partner the Free Democrats, confirmed to the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper that the new law would be introduced in the autumn.
Opposition leaders said Friday they would back a new law, with the head of the Social Democrats Sigmar Gabriel calling for "legal clarity" on the matter and Renate uenast of the Greens welcoming the fact that a "storm of outrage had "finally led the overnment to see reason".
Legal experts, however, note that drafting legislation could prove tricky in balancing religious freedom on the one hand against "physical integrity" on the other.
Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger noted this week that even with a new law, a federal court would likely have the last word on the issue.
The Cologne court, ruling in the case of a Muslim boy who suffered bleeding after circumcision, said the practice inflicts bodily harm and should not be carried out on young boys but could be practised on older males who give consent.
This is not acceptable under Jewish religious practice which requires boys to be circumcised from eight days old, nor for many Muslims, for whom the age of circumcision varies according to family, country and branch of Islam.
Jewish and Muslim groups have branded the court ruling an attack on their religious freedom and Jewish leaders say it could even threaten the continued existence of their community in Germany - a disturbing claim for a country still haunted by the Nazis' murder of six million European Jews in the Holocaust.
Germany is home to about 120,000 Jews and some four million Muslims, many from Turkey which has criticised the court ruling.
Speaking at a meeting of Jewish and Muslim representatives in Brussels, organized last week by the European Jewish Association last week, Rabbi Yitzchak Shochet from the Rabbinical Centre of Europe similarly invoked the Holocaust as a milestone in the continued practice of the religious ritual.
“Circumcision flies in the face of persecution of Jews, such as the Holocaust – which is why it makes it even more shocking that it is a German court inflicting the ban,” he said.
This charge of German complicity was addressed by Germany’s envoy to Israel Andreas Michaelis this week, in speaking to the (Israeli parliament) Knesset. He said: “I understand the sensitivities felt by you and by Jews outside Israel. In the case of Germany, especially because of the guilt for the Holocaust, I understand all the more that you are justifiably sensitive”, adding that the ruling did not affect the status of medical circumcisions as being “accepted legal and societally in Germany”.

EJP