Aletho News

Al Manar

25/12/2009 A dispute is rumbling between Israel and the US Consulate in occupied Jerusalem after a US diplomatic car allegedly tried running over an Israeli Defense Ministry security guard recently at an Israeli army checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. The car had been stopped after the occupants refused to present identification papers.

Israel is also furious that one of the consulate cars was found to have transported a Palestinian without permits between occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The identification of American diplomats from the consulate at Israeli army checkpoints has been a major sticking point for several years.

In January 2008, the Civil Administration of “Judea and Samaria” filed complaints with the Foreign Ministry after both US Security Coordinator Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton and then-consul-general Jacob Walles refused to roll down their windows or open their car doors and show identification papers at a checkpoint.

However, Israel’s ire reached a new level after an incident on November 13 in which a five-car convoy of consulate vehicles with diplomatic plates arrived at the Gilboa crossing.

According to a detailed official Israel Police description of the incident obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, the drivers refused to identify themselves or open a window or door. The drivers, according to the report, purposely blocked the crossing, tried running over one of the Israeli security guards stationed there and made indecent gestures at female guards.

Following the incident, the head of the police’s Security Department convened a meeting on November 18 at police headquarters in occupied Jerusalem with the regional security officer at the consulate. Also present were officials from the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, and the regional security officer at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Dan Power.

According to a protocol of the meeting, obtained by the Post, Ben-Yishai said he assumed the drivers of the consulate vehicles had received permission to act the way they had. He said that in the future, if a diplomatic car did not stop and identify its passengers “immediately,” it would not be allowed to pass the checkpoint.

Ben-Yishai described additional violations by consulate workers, and referred to at least one case in which a female Palestinian without appropriate documentation was found in a diplomatic car. Defense officials told the Post that there had been other similar cases in the past. “We view this as an attempt to illegally transfer someone,” Ben-Yishai said, according to the official police protocol.

He added that police had filed a complaint with the Foreign Ministry and were conducting their own investigation to identify the driver who had tried running over the Israeli security guard.

A spokesperson from the consulate said that consulate policy was not to comment on internal meetings with Israeli officials.

“In regards to the checkpoints, we enter and exit from the West Bank many times a day through checkpoints controlled by the government of Israel without incident, and consulate officials and drivers always carefully follow the procedures that have been established and agreed to by US and Israeli governments for entering and exiting the West Bank,” the spokesperson said. “Any problems that have occurred with checkpoints have been a result of misunderstanding and miscommunication, and we are in regular contact with the government of Israel regarding those procedures to avoid miscommunications in the future.”

In response to the claim that the consulate cars had illegally transported Palestinians, the spokesperson said, “Any allegations that we are illegally transferring people are completely untrue, and as stated earlier, it is in our best interest that we follow the rules so that people who participate in US-funded programs can participate, and it would not be in our best interest to illegally transfer people.”