Our guest on 28.11.2010 Avi Primor, publicist and former Israeli ambassador to Germany

Avi Primor has been one of the key voices in the German-Israeli dialogue that has seen bilateral relations improve remarkably in recent years. From 1993 to 1999, he was the Israeli ambassador to Germany. Since that time, he has consistently worked for reconciliation between Germans and Israelis.

Avi Primor was born in 1935 in Tel Aviv. His mother came from Frankfurt Main and was the only member of her family not killed in the Holocaust - because she emigrated to Palestine in 1932. That was where she met her husband, the son of Jewish immigrants from Holland. After studying Politics in Jerusalem and New York, Avi Primor joined the diplomatic service in 1961. Aged just 26, his career took off quickly. He held various diplomatic posts in Africa, was later the ambassador to France and then the European Union, before arriving in Germany in 1993. Here, he soon rose to become one of the most influential voices in the German-Israeli dialogue. His open and engaging manner quickly won him friends. But after openly criticizing his own government, his term as ambassador was not extended in 1999. He then voluntarily left the diplomatic service and founded a center for European studies in Herzliya, Israel. There, he oversees a degree course for Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students. He also participates regularly in current political debates.