Mexico's Jewish Envoy Gets Smacked by His Community and Fired by His Government Alan Grabinsky - Forward
go to original November 4, 2016

October was a tough month for Andres Roemer — Mexico’s now former ambassador to UNESCO and a highly public, if controversial, member of Mexico’s Jewish community.

Suddenly, last month, a rapid and complicated tangle of Middle East-related developments conspired to recast the 53-year-old star diplomat as a piñata, subject to severe whackings by both his government and his community.

The trouble began on October 13, when Mexico supported a resolution on Jerusalem at UNESCO’s executive board that Israeli and Jewish leaders decried as denying the Jewish people’s historic connection to the ancient city and to the Temple Mount, or Al-Haram Al-Sharif, as most Muslims refer to the site.

The site is revered as holy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But while the resolution’s introduction affirmed “the importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls for the three monotheistic religions,” the bulk of it lambasted Israel’s exercise of jurisdiction over the area as the “occupying power,” which is the status under international law that Israel has on the Temple Mount under international law in the view of most of the world community. Israel, the resolution declared, was undermining historic Muslim rights of control over Islamic holy sites there, and in the surrounding area, and demolishing ancient Arab structures of historic importance.

The resolution also referred to the site only by its Arabic name, Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which Israeli and Diaspora Jewish leaders said reflected a rejection of its role for Jews as the site of Judaism’s ancient Holy Temple.

In Mexico, Roemer was roundly criticized by many Mexican Jews for willingly casting Mexico’s vote in favor of this measure. Then, when it became clear he had actually played a more complex and ambiguous role, the government fired him.

The official reasons the government cited included, among other things, failing to communicate with superiors about the implications of the resolution, disclosing “official correspondence subject to secrecy” and “reporting to representatives of countries other than Mexico” about his vote — the last, an apparent reference to Israel.

For a relatively small Jewish community it was an implication of dual loyalty that many took personally.

Read the rest at Forward

Related: Palestinians, Jordanians Warn Against Opposing Planned Resolution on Jerusalem (AmmonNews)

Photo: UNESCO

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