Avi Primor

Born in 1935, Primor entered Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the beginning of the 1960s.[1] He initially served as a diplomat in Africa and later referred to himself as a disciple of David Kimche, whom he credited when accepting the presidency of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations.[4] That early posting launched a diplomatic career spanning four decades and assignments involving Europe and international institutions.[4]

Primor served as Israel's ambassador to unified Germany from 1993 to 1999.[2] He continued his engagement with German-Israeli relations after leaving the post. In 2015, he participated in a strategic dialogue convened by Israel's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and Germany's Aspen Institute. Discussions covered defense and scientific cooperation, responses to terrorism, Middle Eastern security challenges, antisemitism, and Israeli-Palestinian affairs, and marked 60 years since the establishment of German-Israeli diplomatic relations.[6]

Primor also served as ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, and Luxembourg.[3] He continued to comment publicly on EU-Israel relations, German public opinion, and antisemitism in Western Europe long after leaving the foreign service.[7] His memoir about serving as ambassador to unified Germany was not published in Hebrew, a detail noted by the National Library of Israel in its discussion of memoirs addressing the complex history of Israeli-German relations.[8]

After retiring from the foreign service, Primor moved into academia and institutional roles focused on Europe and foreign policy. In late 2002, he was serving as vice president of Tel Aviv University and as founder and head of the Israel–European Union Forum, an initiative intended to foster dialogue and provide a foundation that Israeli governments could use in negotiations with EU institutions.[7] He also organized the conference "Israel–Europe: Relations in Distress" at Tel Aviv University.[7]

Primor subsequently became head of the Center for European Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a role he held when elected ICFR president in 2010.[4] By 2015, Ynet identified him as head of Tel Aviv University's Department of European Studies.[9] He was also a former president of the Israel-Germany Association and the Israel-Germany Chamber of Commerce, reflecting his sustained engagement with the bilateral relationship he had addressed as ambassador.[10]

Primor also brokered a significant media transaction in 2006. He introduced the German publisher M. DuMont Schauberg to the Haaretz group, resulting in DuMont investing €25 million for a 25% stake in Haaretz's publishing company.[11] Following the deal, Primor joined the Haaretz board as the new shareholder's representative.[11] The transaction drew scrutiny over DuMont's record during the Nazi era, discussed further below.

When ICFR founder David Kimche died in 2010, Primor was elected to succeed him as president of the Council, which operates under World Jewish Congress auspices and functions as a foreign-affairs think tank.[4][5] On assuming the role, Primor invoked his long personal connection to Kimche: "As a disciple of David, dating back to my days as a diplomat in Africa at the beginning of the 1960s, I am very honored to play a role in continuing the activity of the council."[4]

He led the ICFR until 2014, when former government minister Dan Meridor was appointed to succeed him; Primor remained associated with the Council as president emeritus.[5] At a 2011 memorial discussion for Kimche at the Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus, Primor welcomed Palestinian peace activists Munther and Muhammad Dajani of Al-Quds University, co-founders of the Wasatiya movement.[12]

As a commentator and analyst, Primor offered sustained public assessments of European politics, EU-Israel relations, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a 2002 interview, he argued that hostility toward Europe had intensified in Israel over the preceding two years and maintained that criticism of Israeli government policy should be answered on its merits rather than automatically labeled antisemitic.[7] He also contended that antisemitism in Europe was gradually receding, a view he developed further in a 2008 article, "Crying Wolf? A Reevaluation of Antisemitism in Europe," published in The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs.[1] The article argued, on the basis of polling data, that antisemitism in Western Europe was declining despite widespread perceptions to the contrary. It distinguished criticism of Israeli policy from antisemitism and presented Primor's conclusion that most critics of Israeli policies were not antisemites.[1]

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a 2015 working paper records Primor as considering a final mutual agreement highly unlikely and as having proposed that the United States and European countries pressure both sides, combined with the deployment of international troops in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — to provide Israel with security guarantees.[2] In 2013, commenting on a Romanian demand that its workers not be placed in settlements, Primor argued that the move was "not done against Israel, but against a certain aspect of Israeli policy." He said European perceptions deteriorated when settlement announcements appeared to be unnecessary provocations during Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.[13]

Primor also weighed in on European economic and refugee questions. During Germany's response to Greece's debt crisis in 2010, he argued that German hostility toward Greece reflected accumulated resentment and that Germany's decision to support a rescue was driven by self-interest, particularly fear that a Greek collapse could endanger the euro and spread to Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.[14] He recounted that former Chancellor Helmut Kohl had told him that the subsidies Germany gave Greece for planting olive trees could have covered all of Europe in olive trees.[14]

On Europe's 2015 refugee crisis, Primor framed the question as simultaneously moral and economic. Europe needed workers to compensate for population decline, and he argued that Germany — which he distinguished from France, where the population was growing naturally — genuinely needed immigrants.[9] He warned that the scale of arrivals could grow to millions and called for EU-coordinated policy, fairer distribution of refugees across member states, and greater investment in poorer countries and conflict zones on Europe's periphery.[9] He acknowledged that public fear could push voters toward the far right and noted arson attacks on refugee housing in Germany by far-right and neo-Nazi perpetrators, while observing that the German government and most public opinion opposed such attacks.[9]

Primor's work after his ambassadorship continued to focus on the institutional and economic dimensions of Israeli-European relations. A 2007 Congressional Research Service report cited his view that increased German investment in Israel was of primary importance for the future of German-Israeli relations.[15]

An editorial accompanying a 1999 anthology on Jewish life in Germany said Primor's address at the presentation of the German edition indicated that Germany's image was gradually changing in Israel.[16] His later academic and ICFR roles extended that engagement through research, public debate, and policy dialogue.[4][5]

Several episodes in Primor's public career involved disputed or contested claims. In 2006, the DuMont–Haaretz transaction he brokered drew controversy when German media reported allegations concerning DuMont's conduct during the Nazi era, including its acquisition of properties previously owned by Jews. The dispute centered in part on whether the properties had been acquired below market value. DuMont rejected that allegation and appointed historian Manfred Pohl to investigate the company's history. Primor described the timing and circulation of the allegations as part of a "publishers' war" in Germany and said DuMont had told him its real-estate purchases were made in good faith.[17]

In reporting related to the Volkswagen emissions scandal, German media linked Primor and former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin to claims that they had informed Volkswagen executive Ferdinand Piëch about the emissions fraud before it became public. Primor confirmed meeting Piëch in February 2015 but stated that he had only introduced Diskin and Piëch and was not involved in business dealings; he was further quoted as saying he had not discussed diesel emissions with Piëch. The reporting described the allegations as part of a broader dispute among Volkswagen executives over who knew what and when.[18]

In 2012, Primor commented on the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, a document that compares Nazi and Communist crimes. He said he disagreed with the declaration's conclusions while also maintaining that Joachim Gauck should not be criticized simply for raising the issue, and described Gauck as someone who would "irritate many people."[10] Primor's assessments of antisemitism as declining in Western Europe, and his characterization of most Israel critics as non-antisemites, represent his analysis of polling data rather than universally accepted conclusions.[1]