SWEDEN HAS DESIGNATED ERIK ULLENHAG, a former minister of integration and leader of the Liberal People’s Party, as its new ambassador to Israel.
Israel needs to reject this man's appointment.
He has been Sweden’s ambassador to Jordan since 2016, and is slated to arrive in Israel in September.
He courted controversy last month when he announced his new posting by tweeting that he was appointed “ambassador to Tel Aviv,” as opposed to Israel. He later thanked people for congratulating him on becoming ambassador to Israel, using the country’s name.
Ullenhag has one other tweet mentioning Israel, and it is a denial that he supports it. In 2014, he defended his participation in a “Kippah March” – protests against attacks on people wearing Jewish symbols – by writing that he was protesting “against antisemitism, not in a manifestation of support for Israel.”
Insulting behavior
While any country can nominate anyone it wishes to an ambassadorship, most countries do not send people who have proven ill-will against the host country.
Israel can, and should, refuse to accept him.
It is a process not often done, but according to Mongolian Anand Nyamdavaa on Quora (https://tinyurl.com/y8lgbzh5), Before the Ambassador arrives to the host country, a Letter of Credence is sent to notify the arrival of the Ambassador. Once the host country receives the letter, it issues an Agrément. It is a French term for agreement to receive the ambassador-designate. This agreement takes several weeks. Once the agreement is received, the Ambassador presents Letter of Credence to the Head of State in the host country. She can now formally serve as an Ambassador in the host country.
If the host country doesn't want the particular Ambassador, it drags its feet in issuing the Agrément. After a while it becomes obvious that the Agrément is not forthcoming, so the country quietly withdraws the Ambassador back. This type of soft refusal does not happen often but it is not that rare. It is done quietly so that it doesn't cause embarrassment to the country where the Ambassador is from.
Nyamdavaa noted in his Quora post that Brasil refused to accept Dani Dayan as Israel's ambassador to that country.
The Times of Israel (https://tinyurl.com/ybrfj9uh) claims Brasil’s refusal to accept Dayan was because some left-leaning Brazilians and Israelis — including a group of former senior diplomats — started lobbying the government in Brasilia against accepting Dayan, arguing such a move could be understood as tacit approval for Israel’s settlement enterprise. Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff reportedly informed Jerusalem that she disapproves of Dayan’s appointment.
Go home!
An ambassador, indeed, all personnel with diplomatic status, may be ordered to leave a host country, usually within 72 hours.
In the case of Sweden and Israel, why bother to wait until Ullenhag unpacks his bags from the trip from Amman before tossing him out on his ear.
There is no reason, diplomatic or otherwise, for Israel — or any country — to welcome anyone who works against the interests of the state.
Posting Ullenhag as ambassador from Sweden is akin to posting Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib as ambassador to Israel or Louis Eugene Walcott, a/k/a Louis Farrakhan, as ambassador to the UN from the U.S.
Ullenhag’s baggage must — it’s human nature — include Jordan’s current suspicions of Israel and the fact that Jordan’s king sits on a tottering throne thanks to both the true Palestinians (Jordanians) and imitation Palestinians, those living under PLO/PFLP control.
Bottom line: Ullenhag is NOT the person Sweden should be sending to represent it in Israel.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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