World Jewish News

Jewish community of Australia offered to finance Israel diplomatic corps.

After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel had decided to close down, with a view to save resources, eight diplomatic representatives offices in different parts of the world, including the consulate in Sydney (Australia), the Jewish community of this country, wishing to prevent the closing, offered to finance the consulate's further activities.
The Community's representatives wrote a letter to Ariel Sharon, the head of the Israeli government, and Simon Peres, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, explaining their offer. A number of the Knesset deputes approved the offer, however the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the following interim decision was taken:" It is impossible to hold normal the situation when an official Israeli representative office is financed by a local community through donations, for eventually this representative office will be completely dependent on those who support it".
Nevertheless, the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not exclude the fact that, in the cases of other representative offices, for instance, the Israeli Consulates in Montreal and Marseille and the Embassy in Byelorussia, another decision will be taken, and they will not be closed because of "serious worrying for the fate of the local Jewish communities".

Источник: Sem40.ru