Israel’s Ambassador says there will be Repercussions for Belize

Jonathan Peled

So the government of Belize has withdrawn its accreditation of Israel’s Ambassador Designate to Belize Einat Kranz-Neiger. It has suspended all activities conducted by the Israeli Honorary Consulate in Belize and the appointment of the Honorary Consul. The government has also suspended all activities of Belize’s Honorary Consulate in Tel Aviv and withdrawn the appointment of its Honorary Consul. Its request for accreditation of Jonathan Enav, as Belize’s Honorary Consul, has also been withdrawn.  As we mentioned, Belize joins a short list of countries that have also cut diplomatic ties with Israel, including Bolivia and South Africa. Now, will Belize face any repercussions? That’s what we asked Jonathan Peled, Israel’s Deputy Director General for Latin America.

Jonathan Peled, Deputy Director General for Latin America, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel

“We believe that this is counterproductive. It is a very strange, weird, I don’t know exactly how to characterize the decision by Belize to renounce its honorary consul in Israel. The consul who is supposed to represent Belize in Israel has been now. Deposed off, but definitely this will have consequences and primarily in a reduction of tourism to Belize of Israelis wanting to come to visit the Belize of Israelis wanting to invest and do business in Belize. So, yes, definitely. I think this is counterproductive, if not worse. And it will have consequences, which I’m not sure that the government of Belize took into consideration before taking this unilateral and biased decision. At the end of the day, we’re a peaceful country. What we will do, though, is, of course, we will reconsider any kind of cooperation with Belize. And as I said before, we will, we have actually, or we will, sorry, issue a travel advisory, as we have now no consular attention in Belize, as we have now no honorary consul in Belize. Any Israeli citizen who wants to come to Belize does not have any consular attention. So that will oblige us to issue a travel advisory and Israelis will refrain from coming and visiting Belize. I think it’s a loss situation definitely for Belize.  I think that maybe we don’t have thousands of Israelis coming to Belize, but the fact that Israel is now not welcome in Belize and that Belize has severed its ties with Israel has an impact on American Jewry and on other investors coming from other countries, principally from the United States and other countries who may not be Israeli, but could very well be Jewish. And I think that this is not a sign or a very productive thing to do for a country that wants to encourage tourism to its country. So, I think that this has a secondary effect. And as I said, this I’m sure will not be taken well by many friendly countries to Israel, such as the United States and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, who do not see eye to eye with Belize. So therefore we believe that this is a very wrong and, as I said, biased and one sided, unfortunate decision.”