Foreign Ministry investigating Paris deputy ambassador for anti-government activity
Report says Ronit Ben Dor has been using her official social media accounts to protest the current coalition, despite requirement that ministry workers remain apolitical
The Foreign Ministry is investigating Israel’s deputy ambassador in Paris, Ronit Ben Dor, on suspicion she was active on social media in protesting the current government, Channel 12 reported Thursday.
The report said Ben Dor, a professional diplomat from the ministry, had been liking a series of posts denigrating the far-right government and its controversial judicial overhaul, in contravention of ministry policies that require workers to remain apolitical and represent the country.
Among the Twitter posts she liked with her Foreign Ministry verified account were ones referring to a “malicious government,” “a coalition of destruction” and asking “Who are these nothings in the government?”
The Foreign Ministry told Channel 12 that it views “expressions of political views [by ministry workers] very seriously” and that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has ordered an investigation into the incident.
There was no response from Ben Dor.
The report comes days after accusations that staff at Israel’s embassy in Paris worked to prevent Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from meeting with members of the Jewish community when he was in the country last week.
Unnamed senior figures in the Jewish community told Channel 12 news that a worker in the office of acting ambassador Haim Waxman urged them to not meet with Smotrich, a far-right politician whose comments about Arabs have drawn broad international condemnation.
Waxman has been the acting ambassador since Yael German resigned from the post in December saying she would not represent then-incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
German, as opposed to the other diplomats at the embassy, was a political appointee, nominated by former foreign minister Yair Lapid.
The Jewish community sources said they were told that if they did meet with Smotrich, they should speak out against his government’s plans to drastically reconfigure judicial powers, which the worker reportedly termed as “the regime coup.”
The worker denied trying to foil Smotrich’s meetings, the channel reported.
At the time of the visit, French officials and leaders of the three main Jewish community organizations in the country were said to be refusing to sit down with Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party. The minister was in Paris for an annual two-day ministerial summit hosted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Waxman did not greet Smotrich in person when he arrived in the country and did not join the minister when he visited the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket where four Jews were killed in a 2015 terrorist shooting. An embassy representative arrived by taxi bringing flowers and candles, the report said.
However, the Foreign Ministry told the station that Smotrich and his staff would have dealt with Ambassador Haim Assaraff, who represents Israel in multilateral organizations, including the OECD. It said the interference claims would be investigated.
Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, is among the most controversial figures in Israeli politics, with a long history of campaigning against the LGBTQ community, Arabs, Palestinians, and non-Orthodox Jews. In March, Smotrich’s call for the West Bank town of Huwara to be “wiped out” following a terror shooting and settler rampage, energized an international outcry against him.
During his visit to Paris, Smotrich’s office reached out to multiple French counterparts for meetings and was turned down, a French official told The Times of Israel.
When last in Paris earlier this year, Smotrich attended a private memorial service where he declared that Palestinian people are “an invention,” drawing condemnation from France. He also spoke from a podium with a map showing Jordan incorporated into Israel, sparking a diplomatic row with Amman.
The stop in Paris followed a visit to the US in which the minister was similarly shunned by authorities and most Jewish groups.
Israeli government officials have also faced protests when traveling abroad over their support for the government’s judicial overhaul.
In Israel, protesters have been gathering weekly for nearly six months to express their determined opposition to the plans, which have been frozen since late March to allow for compromise talks between the Netanyahu coalition and the opposition.
While the government says the overhaul is needed to rein in what it sees as an over-intrusive judiciary, critics say it will sap the High Court of its ability to act as a check and balance to parliament, dangerously eroding Israel’s democratic character.
The Times of Israel Community.