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26-466: The governmental body of inquiry criticised the Israeli police for being unprepared for the riots and using excessive force to disperse the protesting and rioting citizens. Eight policemen were reprimanded by the commission, most of them after they had retired from the police force. Two police officers were released from the force due to the conclusions. As the commission's mandate was one of inquiry, no action

52-596: A caucus entitled the "Caucus for the strengthening of the foreign service and Israeli diplomacy" in December 2014. Joined by politicians across the political spectrum, Hoffman said, "As long as the security establishment and the army are preferred over the foreign service, national security is damaged. A country whose foreign service doesn't take a central position doesn't act in the best national interest." Israel maintains diplomatic relations with 159 countries. It operates 77 embassies, 19 consulates-general and 5 special missions:

78-489: A central role in mishandling the crisis around October 2000, and gave slap-on-the-wrist treatment to those who fired the shots, while severely censuring Arab political figures for incendiary speech. Some commentators believed this amounted to virtual circumvention of due process for Arab citizens. At the same time, the Or Commission's statements were perhaps the first public official acknowledgment of discrimination faced by

104-788: A legacy of expertise in Spanish interwar politics. From 1987 until 1991, before he entered politics, he was the Israeli ambassador to Spain . In 1996 he was elected to the Knesset on Labour's list. When the One Israel -led government of Ehud Barak took office in July 1999, Ben-Ami became the Minister of Internal Security , responsible for the Israel Police . In August 2000, when David Levy resigned as Foreign Minister during talks with Palestinian leaders in

130-1035: A mission to the United Nations (New York), a mission to the United Nations institutions in Geneva, a mission to the United Nations institutions in Paris, a mission to the United Nations institutions in Vienna and an ambassador to the European Union (Brussels). In October 2000, Morocco, Tunisia and the Sultanate of Oman closed the Israeli offices in their countries and suspended relations with Israel. Niger, which renewed relations with Israel in November 1996, severed them in April 2002. Venezuela and Bolivia severed diplomatic ties with Israel in January 2009, in

156-553: Is a former Israeli diplomat, politician, and historian who participated in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process , including the 2000 Camp David Summit . Shlomo Benabou (later Ben-Ami) was born in Tangier , Morocco. He immigrated to Israel in 1955. He was educated at Tel Aviv University and St Antony's College, Oxford from which he received a D.Phil. in history. Ben-Ami speaks fluent Hebrew, Spanish, French, and English. He

182-575: Is now also the co-chair ( together with ex-chief of Mossad Efraim Halevi ) of an Israeli commission for strategic planning. He has lectured extensively in international conferences in Europe, Russia, the U.S. and Latin America. He is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2006. In an interview on Democracy Now! , Ben-Ami described how his perspective differs from that of the New Historians : My view

208-564: Is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government . The ministry's role is to implement Israel's foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural, and scientific relations with other countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located in the government complex in Givat Ram , Jerusalem . Gideon Sa'ar currently holds the Foreign Ministry post. In the early months of 1948, when

234-470: Is that, but for Jesus Christ, everybody was born in sin, including nations. And the moral perspective of it is there, but at the same time it does not undermine, in my view, in my very modest view, the justification for the creation of a Jewish state, however tough the conditions and however immoral the consequences were for the Palestinians. You see, it is there that I tend to differ from the interpretation of

260-399: Is why I came into politics and why I try to make my very modest contribution to the peace process—is that we need to bring an end to this injustice that has been done to the Palestinians. We need to draw a line between an Israeli state, a sovereign Palestinian state, and solve the best way we can the problem, by giving the necessary compensation to the refugees, by bringing back the refugees to

286-525: The Or Commission held him responsible for the behavior of security forces during the October 2000 riots in which Israeli police killed 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian, and failed to predict and control rioting which resulted in the death of a Jewish Israeli. The report recommended that Ben-Ami be disqualified from serving as Internal Security Minister in the future. Despite the disqualification, Ben-Ami

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312-541: The Arab citizenry of Israel; Adalah and Mossawa commended the Or Commission for this admission. One year after the release of the commission report, Theodore Or publicly attacked the government for failing to implement its recommendations. James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal commented "That the Israeli government criticizes its own treatment of Arabs is a testament to its democracy." Shlomo Ben-Ami Shlomo Ben-Ami ( Hebrew : שלמה בן עמי ; born 17 July 1943)

338-780: The End of the Two-State Solution (Oxford, 2022). Ben-Ami backed the Meretz party for the 2009 Knesset elections . He currently serves as vice president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace of which he is a co-founder. Through the center, he has been involved in conflict resolution processes such as among others, in Colombia, Dominican Republic ( the tensions with Haiti ), Bolivia ( intercultural issues ), Russia-Georgia, Libya ; Spanish Sahara, and Israel-the Arab world. He

364-620: The Palestinian state, no way to the state of Israel, not because it is immoral, but because it is not feasible, it is not possible. We need to act in a realistic way and see what are the conditions for a final peace deal. I believe that we came very, very close to that final peace deal. Unfortunately, we didn't make it. But we came very close in the year 2001. Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Hebrew : מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ , romanized :  Misrad HaHutz ; Arabic : وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية )

390-619: The United States, Barak designated Ben-Ami to be the acting Foreign Minister and he was officially appointed to the role in November 2000. Ben-Ami remained Foreign Minister and Security Minister until March 2001, when, having won elections , Ariel Sharon took over from Barak. Ben-Ami refused to serve in the Sharon government and resigned from the Knesset in August 2002. In their report published in 2003,

416-458: The consolidation of peace, within a framework of respect and promotion of Human Rights and democratic values." Ben-Ami is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli–Arab Tragedy (Oxford, 2006), which challenges many of the founding myths in Israel's modern history especially related to the war of independence. His latest book is Prophets without Honor: The 2000 Camp David Summit and

442-540: The diplomatic corps and the library, and the third is used for receptions. The outside walls of the reception hall incorporate onyx plates that diffuse an amber light. In June 2001, the design won the prize for excellence from the Royal Institute of Architects of Canada. The building is described as a "sophisticated essay in the play between solid and void, mass and volume, and light and shadow." The Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel ( Hebrew : שר החוץ , Sar HaHutz )

468-587: The government of the future State of Israel was being formed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was housed in a building in the abandoned Templer village of Sarona , on the outskirts of Tel Aviv . Moshe Sharett , formerly head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency , was placed in charge of foreign relations, with Walter Eytan as Director General. In November 2013, the longest labor dispute in

494-511: The head of the northern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel) were found to be partially responsible by incitement that preceded the riots. The Or Commission found that Arab citizens suffer discrimination in Israel and leveled criticism at the government for failing to give fair and equal attention to the needs of Arab citizens of Israel. The commission found that frustration with discrimination led to

520-462: The history of the Foreign Ministry's workers union came to an end when diplomats signed an agreement that would increase their salaries and improve their working conditions. A new organization was founded, the Israeli Association for Diplomacy, with the mission of promoting the interests of Foreign Ministry staff. In response to issues raised, MK Ronen Hoffman arranged for the Knesset to launch

546-423: The new historians. They have made an incredible contribution, a very, very important contribution to our understanding of the origins of the state of Israel, but at the same time, my view is that this is how — unfortunately, tragically, sadly — nations were born throughout history. He goes on to describe his perspective on the goal of the peace process and its outcome: And our role, the role of this generation—this

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572-529: The outpourings of frustration in October 2000. The commission's report was highly controversial on all sides, both gravely disappointing the families of the victims and angering those who blamed Arab citizens for the unrest of October 2000. Arab advocacy organizations such as Adalah , the Arab Association for Human Rights, and Mossawa argued that the report exonerated Jewish Israeli political figures who played

598-705: The wake of the IDF operation against Hamas in Gaza. The new building of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kiryat Ben-Gurion , the government complex near the Knesset , was designed by Jerusalem architects Kolker, Kolker and Epstein in association with Diamond, Donald, Schmidt & Co. of Toronto. The building consists of three wings: One houses the offices of the Foreign Minister and director-general, another houses

624-507: Was a historian at Tel Aviv University from the mid-1970s, serving as head of the School of History from 1982 to 1986. His initial field of study was Spanish history; his 1983 biography of the former Spanish dictator (1923–30), General Primo de Rivera , is recognized as the most authoritative study on this subject. He later turned his attention to the history of Israel and the Middle East, leaving

650-559: Was not considered to be a hard-liner in Israeli relations with the Palestinians and during his time in the Barak government, he was a political rival of Shimon Peres . Ben-Ami is currently Vice-President of the Toledo International Centre for Peace (TICpax), which, according to its mission statement, "seeks to contribute to the prevention and resolution of violent or potentially violent international or intranational conflicts and to

676-473: Was taken against most of those warned by it, but rather recommendations were made. Most Jewish politicians were determined to be largely not responsible, with the exception being the Internal Security Ministry, Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami . The commission recommended that he be removed from his post, and he would later become foreign minister. Also, three Arab figures (two Arab members of the Knesset and

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