Israel summons Ecuadorian diplomat to protest Zionism-Nazism equation
Ecuador has not had an ambassador in Israel since it recalled its ambassador from Israel during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
By HERB KEINONUpdated: DECEMBER 4, 2016 22:56THE UN General Assembly in the 1990s, when the ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution was repealed.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Just as a parade of Latin American leaders to Jerusalem created the impression that Israel’s relationship with that region of the world has rarely been better, along comes Ecuador to spoil the party Modi Efraim, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director- general for Latin America, summoned on Sunday the chargé d’affaires at the Ecuadorean Embassy to protest comments Ecuador’s ambassador to the UN made in the General Assembly last week equating Zionism with Nazism.“We repudiate with all our strength the persecution and genocide that, in its time, unleashed Nazism against the Hebrew people,” Horacio Sevilla Borja said on the occasion of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. “But I cannot remember anything more similar in our contemporary history than the eviction, persecution and genocide that today imperialism and Zionism do against the Palestinian people.”Durban I demonstration. (Credit: Reuters)Efraim told the Ecuadorian diplomat that the speech was full of historical falsehoods and inaccuracies, “especially the comparison made between the treatment of the Palestinians to the horrors of the Nazi regime.”Israel, Efraim said, “utterly rejects comparisons or comments such as these that are completely detached from reality.”Efraim said that, at this time, when relations between Israel and Latin America are getting stronger and many Latin American leaders are visiting here, it is a pity that the Ecuadorian representative to the UN chose to slander Israel – something that harms ties between the two countries and does nothing to advance the cause of peace.Last week, the president of Guatemala visited Israel, as did the foreign minister of Uruguay. This week, the president of Honduras is to arrive for the second time in just over a year.Ecuador, on the other hand, has not had an ambassador in Israel since it recalled its ambassador during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.Ecuador is among a bloc of anti-American Latin American countries – which also includes Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua – that are vehemently anti-Israel.