A delegation from the Samaria (Shomron) Regional Council, headed by Deputy Chairman Yossi Dagan, went to Berlin this week to meet with members of the German parliament and other leaders as part of the fight against delegitimization efforts against Jews in Samaria and Judea. The high point of the visit was a meeting with Bundestag member Gitta Connemann, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. The delegation members gave her a letter from the head of the Shomron Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, to relay to Chancellor Merkel. The letter outlined the activities of radical groups funded by European governments, which create provocations in the field and try to bring about a boycott of Jewish enterprises in the area. The members noted that boycott efforts not only hurt area Arabs as well as Jews, they harm Israeli relations with European countries. Dagan called for an end to European funding of the radical groups. In a statement to the media after meeting the Israeli delegation, Connemann said, "There are events that give value and purpose to life. I think today I experienced such an experience. Yossi Dagan and his delegation taught me today about Samaria and about the wonderful and communal life of the people, there, Jews and Muslims alike.” "Dagan and his delegation did an admirable thing,” she added. “I hope that they will continue to work for the purpose of providing true and reliable information about Samaria." The Shomron delegation to Germany is the latest in a series of similar delegations that have gone to Europe over the past year. These delegations have visited Britain, Italy and the EU Parliament in Brussels. This is all part of an effort by the Shomron Regional Council to create alliances in Europe and break the strongholds of the heaviest opposition to Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. Last July, the Shomron Regional Council’s public diplomacy delegation scored a victory when it launched an alliance between Shomron winemakers and the Italian Winemakers Association. Last May Mesika was a guest of honor at an official meeting of the EU Parliament in Brussels. Mesika became the first leader of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria to participate as a guest of honor at an official event in the European Parliament. (Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
