Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Arab League severs ties with Guatemala over embassy move to Jerusalem

The Arab League lashed out at Guatemala on Wednesday, saying it will no longer engage in relations with the country because of the decision to move its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) meets with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales in Jerusalem, Nov. 29, 2016, on the 69th anniversary of Guatemala’s key role in the diplomatic events that laid the foundation for the state of Israel’s creation. Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/POOL/Flash90.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) meets with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales in Jerusalem, Nov. 29, 2016, on the 69th anniversary of Guatemala’s key role in the diplomatic events that laid the foundation for the state of Israel’s creation. Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/POOL/Flash90.

The Arab League lashed out at Guatemala on Wednesday, saying it will no longer engage in relations with the country because of the decision to move its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“In accordance with the guidelines of Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the organization’s Secretariat revoked the Memorandum of Understanding with the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, signed in 2013, and informed the Guatemalan side that cooperation in all fields would be suspended due to the country’s stance on the Jerusalem issue,” a statement issued by the organization stated.

In a document issue by the body on May 18, the body said it would place new emphasis on “developing a comprehensive action plan that includes measures that can be used to counter the decision of the United States or any other state to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or to move the embassy to this city.”

In 1956, Guatemala became the first country to house its embassy in Jerusalem. It moved the facility to Tel Aviv 24 years later, when the Israeli parliament declared Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital.

Barry Levitt, 80, died when a residential balcony collapsed onto an Angel Bakery store in the city’s Rehavia neighborhood.
Prosecutors allege that Humberty Jesus Carillo Garcia used social media to call for attacks on Jews, U.S. soldiers, law enforcement officers and government buildings in a series of violent posts.
The Israeli embassy, in an unusual move, issued a lengthy takedown of the platform.
A Belgian official told JNS the ban “takes nothing away from Belgium’s relationship with Israel or from our attachment to Israel’s security.”
Israeli authorities arrested 29-year-old Muhammad Awad after he allegedly contacted Hamas to enlist and carry out an attack on a government minister.
Sharren Haskel is also calling for the New York City mayor to be permanently banned from entering Israel.