Israel’s Ambassador to Jamaica, Raslan Abu Rukun, has appealed for the support of CARICOM in the wake of Sunday’s protest by pro-Palestinian groups for the Caribbean to sever ties with Israel.
The demonstrators made their requests known outside the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James, where regional leaders were preparing for the 49th CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting.
Ambassador Rukun noted that Israel has had very good bi-lateral relations with CARICOM and is always looking for further co-operation with the Caribbean nations in the different sectors. He did not hide his disappointment that more support has not been forthcoming for Israel from the regional bloc.
“These people are calling to cut the diplomatic ties. This is an absurd situation that we are facing, not just here, but also in other regions of the world, and they need to understand that hopefully in the future, we will have normalisation of agreements with more countries in the Middle East and so it’s nonsense to call for cutting relations with Israel from here. If they want to be helpful, I think they need to put pressure on Hamas and on the Palestinian side to leave the terrorism and to try to reach an agreement with Israel,” he said on Monday during an interview on TBC 88.5 FM morning discussion programme Conversations.
The demands from the pro-Palestinian groups were also formalised in letters to Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the country’s minister of foreign affairs, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith. Isreal has been very supportive of the development of key areas in Jamaica such as security and agriculture.
“Well, we still have diplomatic ties with Jamaica. I think there are some disagreements recently with the situation in the Gaza, but for us, we hope to continue this bilateral relations and also to increase cooperation between us,” said Ambassador Rukun. He noted that he has visited Jamaica twice in the last year and a half and participated in Diplomatic Week. He said he explained Israel’s position and hopes the Jamaican government will understand the complexity of the current situation.
