President of Chile Gabriel Buritz (Photo: Pablo Bellar/Shutterstock)
Chile’s foreign minister, Antonia Oriola, apologized today (Monday) to the country’s president Yitzhak Herzog for the unusual incident that happened last week, during which the incoming Israeli ambassador Gil Artzeali was prevented from submitting his credentials to President Gabriel Borich.
According to a statement from the President’s House, the two spoke after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London. In her words, the minister expressed regret over the incident and clarified that “Chile wishes to open a new page in relations with the State of Israel.”
As a reminder, last week it was reported that the President of Chile, Gabriel Borich, refused to accept the charter from Israel’s new ambassador to the country, Gil Artzeali – and canceled the presentation ceremony a few minutes before it began, when the ambassador was already at the presidential palace. According to reports in the local media, the ceremony was canceled after Boritch was informed about the incident in Judea and Samaria in which a 17-year-old terrorist was killed after opening fire on IDF soldiers.
Following the decision, the Chilean foreign minister went and claimed to the Israeli ambassador that the treaty presentation ceremony would not take place following “the killing of children in Gaza by Israel”. As expected, the unprecedented decision provoked a lot of anger, and the local government was quick to claim that it was not a punishment against Israel – when they claimed it was decided to postpone the date of the ceremony to October.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified on Friday that “Israel takes a serious view of Chile’s puzzling and unprecedented behavior. This seriously harms relations between the countries.” The Chilean ambassador to Israel was supposed to come today for a reprimand call at the Foreign Ministry, but following the apology the call was canceled.
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