Resolving spat, New Zealand appoints separate envoys to Israel, PA

New Zealand has appointed separate envoys to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, six months after Israel rejected a new ambassador because he was responsible for both entities.

Jim McLay, New Zealand’s representative at the United Nations in New York, was appointed Friday the special adviser to Foreign Minister Murray McCully and will serve as New Zealand’s representative to the Palestinian Authority, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Jonathan Curr, based in Turkey, who is the ambassador to Turkey, Jordan, Georgia and Azerbaijan, will serve as envoy to Israel as originally planned when he took the position in September.

The prior two New Zealand ambassadors to Israel also were accredited to the Palestinian Authority, but Israel was not aware of it. The change means that the PA will have a more senior diplomat in the position.

The saga follows a high profile September 2014 diplomatic spat between the two countries over the issue.

“Israel advised New Zealand that it would not accept as ambassador a person who was also a representative to the Palestinian Authority,” Foreign Minister Murray McCully said at the time.

The Israeli Embassy in Wellington noted that the matter is a “protocol principle” applicable to all ambassadors to Israel.

“The issue in question is totally unconnected to the good relations between the two countries,” the embassy said in a statement.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told Associated Press journalists that his government was likely viewed internationally as being pro-Israel before 2012, when it became one of 138 countries that voted in favor of giving Palestine nonmember observer status at the U.N.

Since that vote, Key said, New Zealand has been viewed as being more neutral.

“Our long-standing view has been that there has to be peace in the Middle East, and in the end we want a two-state solution,” he said.