The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs valued the attitude of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, stating that they welcome “with satisfaction” the apologies presented, after the “snub” produced by the cancellation of the meeting where the Israeli ambassador to Chile, Gil Artzyeli, would deliver his credentials to President Gabriel Boric. The meeting in La Moneda was finally rescheduled for September 30.
The Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Ximena Fuentes, communicated with the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alon Ushpiz, and according to information from this ministry, the Chilean authority “apologized for the fact” and also stressed that the ties with Israel “are important to Chile, and that they are interested in preserving them”.
Ushpiz told Fuentes that his country “welcomes the apology call, since it is indeed a serious incident, which could have caused serious damage to relations between Israel and Chile.”
Finally, the director general maintained that “those who wish to play a positive role in promoting peace and dialogue, as Chile highlighted, cannot simultaneously promote a boycott against Israel,” referring to the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, which indicated have “the will to contribute to the construction of a world in peace, understood as the latter not only as one without conflicts, but also as one in which equity, justice and respect for human rights reign”.
“The decision to postpone the presentation of the credential letters must be understood within the framework of the political sensitivity generated by the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager, in the north of the West Bank, during an operation by the Israeli Army, which occurred the same day of that presentation”, they pointed out from the Foreign Ministry through a statement.
From the Executive they indicated that “it was an exceptional measure” and reiterated their “permanent willingness” to maintain “a fraternal and constructive relationship” with the State of Israel and its people, based on respect, dialogue and cooperation “.
The Foreign Ministry’s response came after two days of tension between the two countries and with the Jewish community living in Chile after Chilean President Gabriel Boric refused to receive Israel’s ambassador, Gil Artzyeli, at La Moneda on Thursday.
The Jewish community in Chile even accused President Boric of being an “anti-Semite”. “When the problem is with the only Jewish state in the world, the double standard is called anti-Semitism. With these actions, peace is not contributed, quite the contrary, the Jews of Chile are left facing a hostile climate, violent and threatening,” the group said in a statement posted on social media.
For its part, the same Friday, the Palestinian community valued through a statement on its social networks, Boric’s decision: “As long as the world continues to treat Israel and its diplomats normally, while committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, systematic human rights violations and subjecting the Palestinian population to an apartheid regime, the situation of the Palestinians will not change”.
The Israeli ambassador was received hours after the agreement by the undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Ximena Fuentes, and explained in statements to the media that the Foreign Ministry apologized for what happened “repeatedly.”
“For me it was a not very comfortable incident this morning, but being an Israeli and a Jew, my people have gone through worse things in the last four thousand years and we are going to overcome this incident for the good of Chile and the good of Israel,” Artzyeli stressed.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced this Friday that it had summoned Chile’s ambassador, Jorge Carvajal, for a “reprimand conversation” on Sunday and that what happened is “puzzling” and “unprecedented in Chile.”
Chile has had an important Jewish community established for decades, but it is also the country with the largest Palestinian community outside the Arab world, with more than 500,000 people.
