Dear Mrs. Hadat,  dear Mr. Tal,

 

Thank you very much for your e-mail concerning the requested Waiver of Immunity.

I would like to address the questions that were brought up in the included quote:

 

-          “the context in which the request is being submitted”       The context is the upcoming participation of 290 Israeli troops in the Allied Spirit X exercise conducted at Hohenfels, Germany

-          "the rights that would usually apply to closed formations of foreign armed forces under international law."             This refers to the status of forces agreements (SOFA) that commonly regulate the presence of military troops in host nations. In the majority of cases of training exercises here in Germany either the NATO-SOFA or the Partnership for Peace (PfP)-SOFA applies. In some cases we can rely on bilateral SOFA´s. Unfortunately none of these apply when it comes to Israeli troop presence in Germany.

 

As stated in the submitted verbal note templates:

 

“…the Federal Government must comply with the relevant legal provisions. In principle, the entry of formation-sized contingents of foreign armed forces can only be permitted on the basis of a bilateral or multilateral agreement (Status of Forces Agreement). This is to arrange important issues such as jurisdiction and liability for damage. No such agreement having been concluded between the Federal Republic of Germany and xxx, the entry of the xxx Armed Forces into Germany for the purposes of participating in an exercise or training requires a declaration for the year 20xx, in which the Government of xxx expressly waives the immunity of its soldiers established by customary international law for the duration of their stay in Germany.”

 

In general, this “waiver of immunity” is required for each and every visit of a soldier not regulated by one of the aforementioned SOFA´s. In order to facilitate the visit of small groups and reduce the administrative workload, Germany agreed to exempt visits of up to a maximum of 12 soldiers (per visit) from this requirement.

The German legal requirements have been communicated to the Israeli military attachée though the German Ministry of Defence and through the relevant contacts at the US embassy here in Berlin. Multiple visits of Israeli military personnel to US installations here in Germany have been scheduled according to this legal provision.

 

In order to proceed with the logistic support we need the Israeli embassy to declare the waiver of immunity. This is done through the exchange of verbal notes (please see attachment) initiated by our legal department.

I sincerely hope that this answers your questions. Should you have any questions left please feel free to ask them.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Best regards

 

Christian Seiffert

 

Federal Foreign Office · 11013 Berlin

Division 201

Security and Defense Policy Desk/NATO

 

T +49(0)30-5000-2916 · F +49(0)30-5000-52916

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