The labor union representing Israeli diplomats is refusing to ship ballots to be counted in April 9 election, escalating an ongoing wage spat with the Finance Ministry.
The sealed ballots were supposed to be sent via the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic mail to the Knesset in Jerusalem, where they will be kept in a safe until Election Day, at which point they will be taken out and counted as part of the general vote count.
According to the union, the ballots are instead being kept in a guarded and locked room whose key is itself being hidden.
Anat Amichai, the wife of the head of security at Israel’s embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, casting the first vote in the elections for the 21th Knesset, in early polling allowed for diplomats and their families, March 28, 2019. (Israel Foreign Ministry)
Israel does not have absentee voting, except in the case of official emissaries of either the state or the pre-state institutions that are part of the World Zionist Organization system. In total, 5,137 Israelis living abroad qualify to vote, and have been doing so at some 100 consulates and embassies around the world since last week. Absentee voting ends on Friday, April 5.
The spat began in February when the Finance Ministry ordered in that diplomats’ hospitality budgets for their homes be classified as a taxable benefit, unilaterally raising the de facto income taxes of Israel’s envoys for an activity that the diplomats’ union says is key to their work.
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