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 |  Subject: Pope Francis forced to cancel Israel visit  Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:34 am | |
| Foreign Ministry source confirms trip planned for May scrapped due to ongoing strike by Israeli diplomatsBY RAPHAEL AHREN AND GAVRIEL FISKE March 6, 2014, 11:10 pm Pope Francis dines with Argentine Jewish leaders. (photo credit: World Jewish Congress via JTA)Pope Francis has been forced to cancel his planned visit to Israel, which was to take place over May 24-26, due to the ongoing labor dispute at the Foreign Ministry.A source at the ministry confirmed to The Times of Israel on Thursday that the pontiff’s trip was cancelled because Foreign Ministry workers are currently on strike and are unable to make the necessary arrangements for the high-profile visit.The cancellation is likely to cause “large, measurable economic damage, with all the lost tourist revenue that would have accompanied the visit,” the source said.In early January, Francis announced that he would be visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem in May. He was also to travel to Amman. The Foreign Ministry said that, according to the Vatican, the pope’s visit won’t be able to be rescheduled, only cancelled.On Wednesday, it was announced that British Prime Minister David Cameron was also forced to reschedule his planned visit to Israel due to the labor dispute. Cameron was due to address the Knesset on March 12.“I just don’t see how it’ll be possible to go ahead with the visit without the cooperation of the Foreign Ministry,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.Francis’s trip was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Christian spiritual leader Ecumenical Patriarch Atengora, in Jerusalem.The trip would have been the new pope’s second visit to the Holy Land. He arrived in Israel in 1973, just as the Yom Kippur War broke out. As The Times of Israel revealed in April, the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent six days confined by the conflict to his Jerusalem hotel, where he studied the Letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.President Shimon Peres first invited Francis to Israel immediately after his election as pope, calling on him to visit as a spiritual — not a political — leader. “The sooner you visit, the better; in these days, a new opportunity is being created for peace, and your arrival could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief in peace,” Peres told the pope at the time.Both of the pontiff’s immediate predecessors visited Israel — Benedict XVI in 2009 and John Paul II in 2000.The Israeli diplomats’ strike also threatens the planned visit of Peres to China, which has not been officially confirmed, but is planned for April. Israel’s embassy in China said this week that it was halting work on the planned visit by Peres to Beijing, as well as many other diplomatic projects, as part of labor sanctions initiated by workers who are demanding better pay from the Finance Ministry.The Workers Union, which is fighting for higher salaries and better working conditions for diplomats serving abroad, published a list of more than two dozen measures that took effect as of Tuesday. For instance, Foreign Ministry officials will no longer cooperate in organizing visits of foreign presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other officials. Likewise, the diplomats will henceforth refuse to assist Israeli officials currently abroad or planning overseas trips. No diplomatic passports will be issued and “no assistance whatsoever” will be granted to Israeli officials abroad. In addition, all consular services to Israeli citizens are suspended; exceptions will only be made in cases where lives are in danger, or bodies need to be returned to Israel for burials.Furthermore, the ministry is temporarily suspending any cooperation with government institutions, specifically the Finance Ministry but also the Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence services and the IDF. No diplomatic cables are being sent by diplomats and the cadets course and distribution of pro-Israel public diplomacy materials has been put on hold. Diplomats have been instructed to cease any contact with the United Nations, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, and other international organizations, including peacekeeping missions on Israel’s borders, such as UNIFIL and UNDOF.Last summer, the Workers Union initiated similar labor sanctions, which were suspended at the end of July when the diplomats and the Finance Ministry agreed to approach a mediator. But the talks broke down earlier this week with no result.The Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Read more: Pope Francis forced to cancel Israel visit | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/pope-francis-forced-to-cancel-israel-visit/#ixzz2vIcYI0Os
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| | Subject: Vatican denies reports Pope cancels visit to Israel in May Fri Mar 07, 2014 10:10 pm | |
| Vatican denies reports Pope cancels visit to Israel in MayBy JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON03/07/2014 13:30Reports circulating that dispute in Israel Foreign Ministry causes Pope to cancel visit, rumors of British PM Cameron cancelling also spreading. Pope Francis extends his hand. Photo: REUTERSThe Vatican denied on Friday reports coming from Israelstating that Pope Francis has cancelled his visit to Israel, scheduled for May, due to the ongoing strike of Israel'sForeign Ministry workers."The strike may create difficulties but for now there is nothing further as far as were concerned," said Father Frederico Lombardi.The Pontiff's May 24-26 trip to Amman, Bethlehem andJerusalem will mark the 50th anniversary of a landmark trip there byPope Paul VI in 1964, the first by a pope in modern times. Pope John Paul IIvisited in 2000 and Benedict XVI went in 2009.Another high profile visit received speculation after reports circulated that British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to cancel his trip to Israel for the second time, where he is expected to address the Knesset on March 12.Cameron previously cancelled a trip to Israel due to wide scale flooding in Britain last month.The British Embassy, however, denied on Friday that an official announcement had been made about Cameron's visit. "We don't comment on the prime minister's travel plans," they said.After a seven-month hiatus, the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic workers decided Tuesday to relaunch work sanctions that crippled the ministry’s day-to-day functioning for much of last year and led, at the time, to the cancellation of a number of high-level visits.The sanctions were called after the workers rejected proposals for better working conditions put on the table by the Treasury after a seven- month mediation process.As of Tuesday, the workers claim they will not provide consular services; not service official visits either to Israel from foreign dignitaries or abroad by Israeli officials, including the president and prime minister; will not issue diplomatic passports; and will stop logistical support for political appointees taking up their positions abroad.These steps were taken, according to a statement put out by the ministry’s workers committee, after the Treasury put forward to the mediator a “disgraceful proposal that does not include any solution to the situation that the foreign service finds itself, and does not serve as a basis for any real discussions.” |
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