Israel’s striking diplomats boycott U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East

Just as the Palestinians U.N. ambassador, Ryad Mansour, has begun pressing his colleagues at the U.N. to adopt a resolution criticizing Israel’s construction of settlements, Israel’s U.N. diplomats have decided to go on strike. The Israeli mission to the U.N. announced this morning that they would not attend a scheduled Security Council meeting today on ...

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Just as the Palestinians U.N. ambassador, Ryad Mansour, has begun pressing his colleagues at the U.N. to adopt a resolution criticizing Israel’s construction of settlements, Israel’s U.N. diplomats have decided to go on strike.

The Israeli mission to the U.N. announced this morning that they would not attend a scheduled Security Council meeting today on the Middle East.  “Due to an on going labor dispute of Israeli Foreign service employees, The Israeli Permanent Mission to the UN will unfortunately not be able to participate in today’s UN Security Council meeting,” Israel’s spokeswoman, Karean Peretz said in a statement this morning.

Just as the Palestinians U.N. ambassador, Ryad Mansour, has begun pressing his colleagues at the U.N. to adopt a resolution criticizing Israel’s construction of settlements, Israel’s U.N. diplomats have decided to go on strike.

The Israeli mission to the U.N. announced this morning that they would not attend a scheduled Security Council meeting today on the Middle East.  “Due to an on going labor dispute of Israeli Foreign service employees, The Israeli Permanent Mission to the UN will unfortunately not be able to participate in today’s UN Security Council meeting,” Israel’s spokeswoman, Karean Peretz said in a statement this morning.

It remained unclear what impact the strike would have on Israel’s diplomatic efforts to prevent the U.N. from taking up the Palestinian cause. Today’s council boycott appears partly symbolic. Despite today’s public act of defiance, Israel’s U.N.-based diplomats continue their diplomatic work behind closed doors, according to officials.

The Israeli foreign ministry has been locked in a bitter dispute for years with the government over unmet demands for better pay and working conditions. The union wants pay and benefits for Israeli diplomats to be brought in line with higher pay for employees of the Israeli Defense forces.

The standoff has created some embarrassing moments in the conduct of Israeli foreign policy. Last summer, the staff of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was forced to enlist the help of the country’s intelligence agency, Mossad, to book hotel reservations in Washington so he could attend a peace summit with his Palestinian counterpart.

Follow me on Twitter @columlynch

 

Colum Lynch was a staff writer at Foreign Policy between 2010 and 2022. Twitter: @columlynch

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