Israel will join the United States and other countries in rejecting the United Nations’ Global Compact on Migration, which is expected to be adopted in Morocco in December.
The final version was agreed in July and consists of 23 goals to encourage legal migration and better administer the flow or immigrants and refugees as the number of people moving worldwide has increased to 250 million, or 3 percent of the global population.
Reportedly, Israel was encouraged by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an immigration hawk, who requested Israel leave the agreement. “They say [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu had not even been aware of the issue, which was dealt with by Israel’s Foreign Ministry,” according to Axios.
U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the accord during the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in September and announced that the United States wouldn’t be part of it.
“Israeli officials said Israeli diplomats spoke to Trump administration officials after the speech and asked if they wanted Israel to withdraw too,” reported Axios. “The message from the Trump administration was that the U.S. would be pleased if Israel were to pull out. A few days after Trump’s speech, Netanyahu met in New York with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who also asked Netanyahu to withdraw.”
With this development, Israel will not send any officials to the conference in Marrakesh, which is scheduled to be held between Dec. 10 and Dec. 11.
Other countries expected to reject the pact include the Czech Republic and possibly Bulgaria.
