Hotovely heckles Jordan's foreign minister at UN session on Jerusalem

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely breached diplomatic protocol at the United Nations on Thursday, when she reportedly heckled and/or interrupted the Jordanian foreign minister during a discussion on tensions in and around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The meeting on Thursday was held as a series of speeches by foreign ministers of several nations. With Prime Minister Netanyahu holding the post of foreign minister himself and not present at the meeting, Hotovely was in attendance as Israel’s highest ranking diplomat.

In her remarks, Hotovely (Likud) Hotovely reportedly lambasted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for incitement against Israel in his Wednesday speech to the UN, in which he claimed Israeli extremists were desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque and that Israel was violating the status quo at the sensitive holy site. “The conflict will be resolved when the basic values of the Palestinian Authority change,” she was also quoted saying. “As long as Palestinian children dream of becoming engineers ‘to blow up Jews,’ none of these economic efforts [to aid the Palestinians] will achieve their goal.”

After Hotovely delivered her speech, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said, when his turn came: “I have a written address but I don’t plan to give it because I can’t not respond to what we’ve heard from the Israeli representative.”

He said Israel offends Muslims around the world when it sent troops with their boots on into Al-Aqsa. As he continued, Hotovely interrupted Judeh more than once, accused him of distorting history, and, according to Israeli media reports, was called to order at least twice by Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende, who chaired the meeting.