The Mexican government Wednesday dismissed its envoy to UNESCO, Andres Roemer, over his objection to the recent resolution passed by the U.N. body that ignored the Jewish connection to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and Western Wall.
Roemer, who is Jewish, walked out of last Thursday’s vote on the resolution in a personal protest against his country’s support for it. Then Tuesday, Roemer attempted a last ditch effort to force a revote and change Mexico’s vote. However, Mexico eventually withdrew its motion, and instead issued a statement that it wished to change its vote from “support” to “abstain.” As such, the resolution was formally ratified by UNESCO.
According to a statement from the Mexican government, Roemer was dismissed “for not having informed diligently and with meticulousness of the context in which the voting process occurred, for reporting to representatives of countries other than Mexico about the sense of his vote, and for making public documents and official correspondence subject to secrecy.”
“Given what’s happened, I’m simply no longer the envoy,” Roemer told Israel’s Channel 2. “This resolution was a combination of ignorance or anti-Semitism and anti-Israel policy. It’s considered politically correct to vote against Israel over the situation [the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process], and it’s like that all over the world. Anti-Semitism is based on great ignorance. … We need education to fight it.”
Source: JNS