General News of Friday, 22 December 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-12-22
Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Ami Mehl
The Israeli Embassy in Ghana has expressed disappointment over Ghana’s vote against the US President, Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
According to the Embassy, it “regrets the mistaken vote of Ghana against the State of Israel during the Special United Nation’s (UN) General Assembly sitting on Thursday, 21 December 2017, as the Assembly adopted a resolution regarding Israel’s capital Jerusalem.”
It said it was hopeful that Ghana will not repeat “such mistake” in subsequent motions before the General Assembly.
Ghana was among the 128 countries that endorsed a position that Jerusalem, which is being claimed by Israel and Palestine as capital, can only be said to be Israel’s capital after a peace deal is reached.
At an emergency session of United Nations on Thursday, only 9 countries, including the US and Israel, voted against the position of waiting until consensus has been built on the matter.
The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, ahead of the votes threatened that the US will remember countries that “disrespected” it by voting against it.
The US government had also threatened to cut funding to countries that did not back its position.
She said the US “would be taking names…When we make generous contributions to the UN, we also have expectation that we will be respected…What’s more, we are being asked to pay for the dubious privileges of being disrespected.”
“If our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our investment in other ways… The United States will remember this day,” she said.
Donald Trump, while speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said “Let them vote against us… We’ll save a lot. We don’t care. But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.
“We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer” he added.
Despite the threat, countries such as Nigeria, Congo, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Mali, and Zimbabwe all voted against the US’ position.
Israel, which stands in the same position as the US that Jerusalem is its rightful capital, was one of the nine countries including the US that voted against the motion.
H.E Ami Mehl, Israel’s Ambassador to Ghana in a statement copied to citifmonline.com, described Thursday’s vote as a “farce”, saying it will not affect their recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Read the Israel Embassy’s statement below:
The vote against the United States (US) by the United Nation’s General Assembly special sitting on Thursday, 21 December 2017 is nothing but a farce. The UN cannot dictate to Israel or any other country which of its cities it has to recognize as a capital. In the same regard, the UN cannot dictate to the US or any other country whether or not to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and where to site their embassies in Israel.
This voting by the UN General Assembly is meaningless from the view point of International Law. It is therefore evident that, the Palestinians are using all forms of diplomatic efforts in international organizations to fight against Israel instead of engaging in direct negotiations with Israel for the sake of peace.
As stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel completely rejects this resolution. Jerusalem was, is and will always remain the eternal capital of Israel.
The Embassy of the State of Israel in Ghana therefore regrets the mistaken vote of Ghana against the State of Israel during the Special United Nation’s (UN) General Assembly sitting on Thursday, 21 December 2017 as the assembly adopted a resolution regarding Israel’s capital Jerusalem. We hope such mistake will not be repeated by Ghana in subsequent motions.
