PM meets Mexican diplomat fired for challenging UNESCO Jerusalem vote

Netanyahu earlier today met with Mexico’s former UNESCO ambassador who was fired last year for refusing to vote in favor of a resolution effectively denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem.

Andres Roemer, who is Jewish, met with Netanyahu in Paris, just before the prime minister left for Hungary.

Roemer said he appreciated that he was given time on Netanyahu’s tight schedule in Paris. “Last year, I received many expressions of sympathy and support from the Jewish and also the Christian world, but today’s meeting was particularly touching for me,” Roemer said, according to a press release by Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, who organized the meeting.

In October 2016 — two months after Roemer arrived at UNESCO — he walked out during a vote on a resolution about the Old City of Jerusalem because he did not want to follow the instructions from his capital to vote in favor. He was later dismissed from his position.

“I am at peace with what I did,” he said, according to Shama-Hacohen. “I did it not only as a Jew but also a person who believes that these votes do not have a place in an educational and cultural organization, and hurt us all.”

During the meeting, Roemer gave Netanyahu a copy of his latest book.

— Raphael Ahren