|
August 24, 2010
Posted: 1553 GMT
Imagine you are the leader of your country making an important diplomatic visit to another country. You would expect, as is custom, to be met on the ground by personnel from your embassy who would assist with all of the complicated logistics and protocol of a state visit. Pretty standard stuff that usually gets taken for granted in the world of international diplomacy, but not if you are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and your foreign ministry staff is on strike. A report in Tuesday's Haaretz describes that the latest salvo by the union representing Israel's foreign ministry workers in its ongoing battle with the finance ministry over wages will be fired when Netanyahu visits Washington in September for the start of peace talks with the Palestinians. Per Haaretz, after meeting Tuesday the union announced that embassy workers in Washington "will refuse to assist in any administrative aspect of the visit, including hotel reservations, organizing transportation for the Netanyahu or his staff, and the prime minister's arrival at the airport" The labor dispute has been going on for a number of weeks and a speedy resolution does not appear to be in sight. Visitors to the Foreign Ministry website are greeted by a large red banner announcing "As part of the sanctions announced by the Israel Foreign Ministry workers' union, the Consular Department will not provide services to the public and telephone calls will not be answered" The English website for Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aronoth describes how foreign ministry employees have already stopped offering services to diplomats visiting the Jewish State and will stop holding meetings in its embassies and consular offices abroad. Barring a resolution Netanyahu's office will have to handle all the arrangements of his visit to the United States along with the help of the White House. We contacted a foreign ministry spokesman for their reaction but, perhaps unsurprisingly, he was not answering the phone when we called. Posted by: Kevin Flower
|
This blog has now been archived and commenting has been switched off. Visit the Inside the Middle East site for news, views and video from across the region. Read more about CNN's special reports policy Categories
Archive
|