Ashkenazi thanks Russia for help on remains in Syria
Some Israelis in US will fly back for Tuesday’s elections, others aren’t sure it’s worth the hassle
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi thanked Russia for its efforts to recover the remains of Israelis in Syria, during a meeting in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
“Thank you for your assistance concerning our humanitarian issues with soldiers and others,” Ashkenazi said. “It’s well known in Israel that if there is a sensitive issue in our society, it’s this issue.”
Ashkenazi called the meeting “a great opportunity to thank Russia and your leadership on assisting in this issue.”
Russian soldiers are reportedly searching for legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen’s remains. Russia Today recently released a previously unseen video of Cohen walking in Damascus. Cohen was hanged in the Syrian capital in 1965 after having his cover blown.
In 2019, the Russian army found the remains of IDF soldier Zachary Baumel, who had been missing since 1982, and returned them to Israel. The remains of two other soldiers declared missing in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, during the 1982 Lebanon War, have yet to be recovered.
Ashkenazi and Lavrov also answered a question about the pending investigation against Israel in the International Criminal Court, in which prosecutor Fatou Bensouda claims Israel committed war crimes against the Palestinians.
Lavrov said Russia is “rather negative” about the ICC.
“The situation you mentioned is just one example. The court was established with a hope that it would be a professional, independent body, which would someday become universal. In practice, it proved otherwise. The ICC hasn’t lived up to the expectations. More than once, it has proved politically motivated in its actions,” Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister accused the ICC of “trying to extend its authority and encroaching on areas that are not fit for it.”
Ashkenazi expressed hope that the Israel investigation would drop off of the ICC’s agenda.
The decision to investigate Israel “twists international law and hurts the chance to renew negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said.
Ashkenazi also praised Russia as “a central player in the Middle East... that is important for regional stability.” He thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Israel.
“In recent years, Israel and Russia have a fruitful dialogue based on shared interests and on cooperation in areas of national security. I see great importance in this dialogue between us,”
Ashkenazi said.
Russia and Israel are marking 30 years of diplomatic relations this year, and Ashkenazi cited events planned in both countries to mark the anniversary.
Ashkenazi, whose father is a Holocaust survivor, thanked Russia for its role in World War II more than once.
Earlier Wednesday, Ashkenazi laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, commemorating Red Army soldiers whose place of burial is unknown.
“We remember the central role of the Russian army in World War II and their liberation of extermination camps throughout Europe, and we will remain eternally grateful for this,” Ashkenazi said.
Russia and other Eastern European countries, especially Poland, have been involved in diplomatic spats in recent years about their respective roles in World War II and the Holocaust. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have taken part in ceremonies with Putin glorifying the Red Army’s defeat of the Nazis, in both Moscow and Jerusalem.
Ashkenazi will also take part in an unveiling ceremony for a Holocaust Memorial at the Israeli Embassy in Russia.
He plans to return to Israel on Wednesday evening.
Earlier this week, Lavrov met with Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Russian state media TASS reported this week.
Ashkenazi has tried to convince countries around the world to designate all of Hezbollah – including its political activities – as a terrorist organization. Russian officials have said in recent years that they view Hezbollah as legitimate, and not a terrorist group.
An Israeli diplomatic source said on Tuesday that the Foreign Ministry views the timing of Lavrov and Raad’s meeting as coincidental, and not an intentional slight. He said Ashkenazi planned to ask Lavrov what was discussed in the meeting.
In addition, Ashkenazi sought to reach an agreement by which Russia would recognize Israeli “Green Passports,” as the certificates for people who have been vaccinated against, or recovered from, COVID-19 are known.
However, the Israeli Health Ministry does not accept the Russian COVID-19 vaccine. The diplomatic source said Israel has proposed that Russians seeking to visit the country undergo a PCR or serological test to show they have antibodies against coronavirus before visiting, but they will not have to go into quarantine upon arrival.
NEW YORK – Shahar Azran has lived in New York City for 30 years. The dual Israeli-US citizen has adopted one of America’s oldest political practices during his decades in the states – getting out the vote.
With Israel gearing up to hold parliamentary elections for an unprecedented fourth time in two years on March 23, Azran, 52, isn’t letting fear of the COVID-19 pandemic or travel restrictions stop him from casting his vote for Israel’s next prime minister, even if that means spending $1,000 on airfare for a five-day trip that won’t include seeing much more than a polling station.
“I’m very involved politically. My kids are living in Israel and I’m there about 12 times a year,” Azran, who works as a photographer and media consultant, told The Jerusalem Post. “I don’t necessarily think I should be allowed to vote for who runs the show in Israel anymore, because I haven’t lived in Israel for so long. I’m a citizen of Israel but not a resident. But for as long as I have the right to vote, it’s important that I do everything I can to implement it. Israel is still extremely important to me, and it’s hard for me to see what’s going on there.”
Unlike Americans, Israelis for the most part are not allowed to vote by absentee ballot.
With seemingly endless voting, coupled with coronavirus fears, many Israelis abroad are opting to save the hassle and airfare cost. But Azran won’t sit this one out. He was “extremely concerned” he wouldn’t be allowed into Israel to vote when the country shut down its skies in late January as a measure of reducing coronavirus spread.
Azran has received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine, but said he would have taken a risk and made the Election Day trip even if he was not vaccinated.
“I want to vote so that my kids can have a better life there, and maybe I will even move back one day,” he said.
RUTH PELED, a Manhattan-based travel agent, is also fully inoculated. But the 68-year-old said she and her husband still have air travel on hold.
“When we do feel safe flying again, we want to visit our daughter in California. That’s more of a priority than going to Israel to vote,” she told the Post.
Peled expressed apathy toward returning to her birth country for elections, even if it weren’t for an ongoing pandemic. “It’s never been important to me in previous elections. We travel for the sake of family and love of Israel but never for the sake of voting.”
She noted her Israeli peers also living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side are politically minded, but to her knowledge none are returning home for the election.
“We have a lot of arguments about both US and Israeli politics and we all follow Israeli news to stay updated, but I haven’t heard of anyone making that effort to go back to vote,” she said.
A select group of Israelis serving the country abroad are eligible to vote at their local consulate. This includes members of the IDF and workers for the Jewish Agency, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, United Israel Appeal or the World Zionist Organization.
At the Consulate-General of Israel in New York City, the largest polling station outside of Israel, Election Day was held on March 11. Itay Milner, a consulate spokesman, told the Post that 600 registered voters showed up, 200 people fewer than in the previous election, likely due to the migration of New Yorkers fleeing to the suburbs during the pandemic.
Still, Milner called the operation a “success” and noted that overall voter turnout was higher than in the March 2020 election – 69% compared to 55%.
“We don’t know exactly why the voter turnout was higher this time,” Milner said. “It could be, because of the pandemic, less people want to travel, so more people voted in New York.”
Azran expressed belief that all Israelis abroad should be given the option to vote absentee – especially amid the pandemic.
“I’m fortunate that
I can afford the flight, but it’s not fair that’s what gives me the right to vote. I wish I wouldn’t have to make the trip,” he said. “That’s a main difference between the US and Israel. It’s so much easier to vote in American elections.”
The Palestinian Authority received 60,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Wednesday, its largest single allocation to date and its first shipment of the inoculations through a World Health Organization donor program known as COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access).
COVAX is expected to provide enough COVID-19 vaccine doses over the course of this year for a million Palestinians, the equivalent of 20% of its population, as part of its goal of ensuring that 20% of the global population in poor and middle income countries are inoculated against the coronavirus.
The shipment that arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport this morning included 37,000 doses of Pfizer and 23,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines.
The Unit for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is facilitating the transfer of 40,000 doses to the Palestinian Authority through the Betunia Crossing. An additional 20,000 vaccines were to be transferred later Wednesday to the Gaza Strip.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said he was “happy to welcome the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines in Palestine, via the COVAX Facility,” through a partnership that also included the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI); Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and UNICEF.
“Those vaccines being sent to the West Bank and Gaza will be critical tools in our fight against the pandemic and for socioeconomic recovery,” he said. “The UN, through its good offices, will continue to support the Government of Palestine [sic] in accessing vaccines via the COVAX facility so that it can fully implement its national vaccination campaign,” Wennesland said.
He also thanked Israel for coordinating the transfer of the vaccines.
The Palestinian Authority is just in the fledgling stages of its vaccination program. According to a WHO report published last Thursday, only 9,646 Palestinians
have been vaccinated through Palestinian health services in the West Bank and Gaza.
The largest vaccination drive to date for Palestinians has been conducted by Israel, which plans to inoculate with the Moderna vaccine 120,000 workers employed within sovereign Israel or in West Bank settlements.
To date, some 90,000 of those Palestinians have been vaccinated with their first dose through a program organized by COGAT, the Health Ministry and Magen David Adom.
In addition Israel has donated 5,000 Moderna vaccines to the PA for Palestinians in the West Bank. The United Arab Emirates has sent 60,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine to Gaza, of which 40,000 were transferred on Friday and 20,000 were sent to Gaza last month.
Russia separately donated 10,000 of its Sputnik vaccines to the PA.
The PA is expected to receive a shipment of 100,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine later this month.