Israel Downgrade Ties With New Zealand and Senegal Over UN Settlement Resolution

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By Marcy Oster February 12, 2017

JERUSALEM (JTA) –Israel is permanently downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Zealand and Senegal, two of the cosponsors of an anti-settlement resolution passed in the United Nations.

Israel recalled the ambassadors to the two countries after Resolution 2334 passed in late December. The resolution passed by a vote of 14-0 with one abstention, the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided last week to not return the two ambassadors, the Times of Israel reported Friday, citing a “senior source intimately familiar with the issue.”

According to the report, not returning resident ambassadors to the country is not a formal demotion of ties, but relying on a charge d’affairs in the two countries effectively downgrades the ties.

Netanyahu reportedly ordered a halt to Israeli aid to Senegal in the wake of the resolution’s passage.

Venezuela and Malaysia were the other two co-sponsors.

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