section_path: Ideology and platform/Foreign policy/Middle East
section_name: Middle East
paragraph_text: Middle East
  
  The party had previously been pro-Israel. AfD supported the decision of US president Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, as stated by AfD's Petr Bystron. Despite AfD's pro-Israel stance, the State of Israel has boycotted the party and refuses to hold ties with AfD. The party was divided over the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, with party leader Chrupalla condemning the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel but calling for diplomacy between the two sides and mourning deaths on both sides, while other MPs, such as Norbert Kleinwächter and Rüdiger Lucassen were critical of Chrupalla's position and openly defended Israeli actions during the conflict. Following the Hamas attack, the party supported cuts in German aid to Palestine via the UNRWA.
  
  In 2024 AfD reversed its previously pro-Israel position, with co-leader Tino Chrupalla calling for an end to Germany's current relationship with Israel, which Chrupalla described as "one-sided", as well as an end to arms exports to Israel during the Gaza war. This decision drew criticism from some other members of the AfD parliamentary group, suggesting a continued internal divide on the issue. Chrupalla criticized the German government's support for Israel during the Gaza war and rejected "blanket" Islamophobia. Some AfD members condemned the genocide in Gaza. Nevertheless, in January 2025, the other co-leader, Alice Weidel, affirmed her support for Israel, but noted that she "didn't know how she would solve this conflict". Chrupalla and Weidel have been described as divided on the issue of Israel, with Weidel continuing to affirm German support for Israel's right to self-defence. Following the June 2025 Israeli strikes on Iran, AfD foreign policy spokesperson Markus Frohnmaier expressed support for a diplomatic solution and called on both sides to cease hostilities, while insisting that Iran should not pursue a nuclear weapons programme.
  
  Although the Israeli Foreign Ministry continues to have no contact with AfD, Israeli Diaspora Affairs minister Amichai Chikli has praised several of AfD's policy stances and expressed support for Weidel, while criticising historical revisionist elements within the party, represented by Maximilian Krah and Björn Höcke.
  
  In 2018 and 2019, AfD Bundestag members visited Ba'athist Syria, meeting with senior officials from the government of Bashar al-Assad and advocating for the return of Syrian refugees.