Ireland slams Israeli ‘reprimand’ of envoy

By AFP 24 May 2024, 11:29 pm

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Spanish ambassador Ana Sálomon Pérez, Norwegian ambassador Per Egil Selvaag and Irish ambassador Sonya McGuinness watch footage of female soldiers being abducted from the Nahal Oz base on October 7 at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, May 23, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Ireland’s deputy prime minister Micheal Martin on Friday called Israel’s “reprimand” of its ambassador “totally unacceptable,” after Dublin announced moves to recognize a Palestinian state.

Ireland, Norway and Spain said on Wednesday that they will formally recognize statehood on May 28 and Israel immediately vowed counter-measures.

Irish ambassador Sonya McGuinness and her Norwegian and Spanish counterparts were summoned on Thursday. Israel’s foreign ministry said it showed them a video of the kidnapping of five women soldiers during the October 7 attack by Hamas that set off the Gaza war.

Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister, told reporters: “I find that totally unacceptable and no way to treat diplomats, and is outside the norm by which diplomats are treated in any country.”

Showing the ambassador the video in front of Israeli media was something they had not “witnessed before in other countries or jurisdictions,” he adds.

“Most people would accept internationally that that’s not within the parameters of acceptable norms in terms of how people engage with diplomats,” he says.