{"id":354802,"date":"2025-08-18T18:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/354802\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T18:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:36:14","slug":"diplomatic-sparring-israel-hits-back-after-hostile-moves-by-australia-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/354802\/","title":{"rendered":"Diplomatic sparring: Israel hits back after hostile moves by Australia & France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, May 26, 2025. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

After being hit by an avalanche of criticism and hostile diplomatic moves by Western countries over the past weeks, the Israeli Foreign Ministry decided to fight back and initiated diplomatic moves against Australia and France.<\/p>\n

Both countries have been among the leading Western nations criticizing Israel over the past two years of war, and have escalated their hostile moves amid a campaign alleging that Israel was intentionally starving the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

They also vowed to recognize a Palestinian state, with France spearheading an international campaign for other countries to join their declaration.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Australia decided to cancel the visa and ban<\/strong><\/a> Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman, citing statements like \u201cHamas must be destroyed\u201d as the reason.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said in the evening that in response, he \u201cdecided to revoke the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote on \ud835\udd4f that \u201cThe Australian Ambassador to Israel was just notified on the matter. I also instructed the Israeli Embassy in Canberra to carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019ar said that this came after Australia decided to recognize \u201ca Palestinian state and the \u201cunjustified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures, including former Minister Ayelet Shaked and the Chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK Simcha Rotman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile antisemitism is raging in Australia, including manifestations of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, the Australian government is choosing to fuel it by false accusations, as if the visit of Israeli figures will disrupt public order and harm Australia’s Muslim population. It is shameful and unacceptable!\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Israel Hayom reported that Israel is considering shutting down France\u2019s Consulate General in Jerusalem in response to France\u2019s recognition of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

The French Foreign Ministry said Monday it wasn\u2019t aware of such a plan, threatening it would be \u201cparticularly damaging to our bilateral relationship and would provoke a strong reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Israel Hayom\u2019s report, Sa\u2019ar advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shut the consulate due to France\u2019s recent moves, and the cabinet is expected to make a formal decision after discussing the issue in its recent meetings.<\/p>\n

The closure of the consulate has been debated in the media for some time, as France is reportedly conducting its diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority via its consulate in Jerusalem, which is supposed to serve for contacts with Israel.<\/p>\n

According to the Times of Israel, similar arrangements are being conducted in the Jerusalem consulates of the UK, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Spain, and Sweden, as they were founded before the state of Israel and continue to operate without official accreditation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, May 26, 2025. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90) After being hit by an avalanche of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-354802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115051219142076457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}