WATCH: Palestinian girl to be deported from Germany confronts Merkel on national TV
“I have goals like anyone else," Reem, the young girl, told Merkel.
By JPOST.COM STAFFMerkel comforts young Palestinian refugee
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was confronted on national television by a young Palestinian refugee who is due to be deported back to Lebanon.The video of the heart-wrenching encounter, which has gone viral, shows an emotional Merkel comforting the young girl as she courageously pleads with the German chancellor to allow her and her family to remain.“I have goals like anyone else. I want to study like them ... it’s very unpleasant to see how others can enjoy life, and I can’t myself,” said Reem, a Palestinian whose family has been living in Rostock for the last four years after arriving from a refugee camp in Lebanon.A stunned Merkel then approached Reem, telling her that “politics is sometimes hard. You’re right in front of me now and you’re an extremely sympathetic person. But you also know in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are thousands and thousands and if we were to say you can all come ... we just can’t manage it.”The story was reported by the British Guardian newspaper.Germany’s rising refugee population has become a hot-button topic among the country’s political class.The European power has received a surge of refugees in the last few years - 200,000 in 2014 and a further 85,000 in the first quarter of 2015 alone.