General News of Monday, 25 December 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-12-25
Chairman of the People’s National Convention, Bernard Mornah
The Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, has called for the immediate expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Ami Mehl, over his statement on Ghana’s vote against a decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
According to him, the Israeli Ambassador has shown gross disrespect to the integrity of the President Akufo-Addo and the people of Ghana.
In a statement to Ghana, the Israeli Embassy expressed his country’s disappointment over the vote.
The statement said it was hopeful that Ghana will not repeat “such mistake” in subsequent motions before the General Assembly.
But in an interview with Citi News, Mr. Mornah described the Ambassador’s posturing as insulting.
“The Israeli Ambassador’s statement is the greatest insult that an individual can level on a sovereign nation like Ghana. I think that it undermines our collective intelligence, it undermines our President’s capacity to take decisions on behalf of the people of Ghana, and it insults our position on any other matter in international fora” he said.
In view of this, he said there was no reason for Ghana to still “harbor such a person”.
“I am totally appalled that our president is still trying to harbor such a person who has shown gross disrespect and disregard for our sovereignty… Without hesitation, we would have recalled our Ambassador from Israel and immediate and immediately expel the Ambassador of Israel to Ghana. This kind of disrespect should not be allowed to fester in our nation,” Mr. Mornah said.
Threats from US
Ahead of the vote, the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, warned 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.
Despite the threat, countries such as Nigeria, Congo, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Mali, and Zimbabwe all voted against the US’ position.
