The President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz is due to address in German the Knesset, Israel’s 120-member parliament, next week.
On Monday, the Knesset House Committee is expected to authorize the speech in German, which is to take place on February 12. In 2011, former European Parliament Jerzy Buzek addressed the Knesset in his native Polish.
Schulz will be on an official visit to the Middle East from 9-12 February. He will also visit Jordan and the Palestian Territories.
In Jordan, he will take part on Sunday in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea and later meet by Jordan’s Prince Feisal Ibn Al-Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour.
On Sunday evening, President Schulz will be in Jericho where he will meet with Saeb Erakat, Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erakat.
After an encounter on Monday in Ramallah with representatives of the Palestinian civil society, he will hold at midday a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.
A press conference with President Schulz and Prime Minister Hamdallah will take place at 2pm local time in Ramallah.
He will later take part in a field visit together with the Prime Minister under the lead of UNRWA and with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Jerusalem.
Later in the day, Schulz will launch the European Parliament Young Leaders Seminar Network for young Europeans, Israelis and Palestinians.
His visit in Israel will start on Tuesday morning at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial where he will be accompanied by Judge Gabriel Bach who was the senior prosecutor in the Adolf Eichmann’s trial and spoke last year at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in the European Parliament.
He will also meet members of the Caucus of the Knesset to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict (Two States Solution) chaired by MK Yehiel (Hilik) Bar, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Secretary General of the Israeli Labor Party. He will also hold a meeting with the leader of the Israeli Labor Party Isaac Herzog.
Later in the afternoon, President Schulz will be awarded Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and make on this occasion an address on the EU-Israel relations.
On Wednesday, after holding meetings with the Israeli civil society and NGOs, he will meet the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset , Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, before delivering his address to the Knesset.
During his visit, Schulz will also meet Israeli Presidnet Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and peace talks chief negotiator Tzipi Livni.
Schulz will be accompanied by a six-man EU entourage, including EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen and several advisers, as well as members of the German press.