 Both countries are full members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Union for the Mediterranean.In the early 1950s, the negotiations began between the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Jewish Claims Conference Nahum Goldmann, and the Chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer.Because of the sensitivity of accepting reparations, this decision was intensely debated in the Israeli Knesset.