Yesterday, the ASSOCIATED PRESS reported: Israeli Diplomat Postpones Meeting after Costa Rica Recognizes Palestinian State. This unusual move by the small but prosperous Central American country was immediately picked up by the international press and at least two Israeli newspapers, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz.
According to the AP story, a meeting between President Oscar Arias and an Israeli diplomat, scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed after the Central American nation’s decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state. The Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said Costa Rica hoped to encourage peace talks, a key demand on the part of the Palestinians. In a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel, he said Israel was disappointed “over this regretful decision of the government of Costa Rica to establish full diplomatic relations with the ‘state of Palestine.'”
Earlier, in August 2006, President Arias’ administration announced that Costa Rica would, along with El Salvador, move its embassy to Tel Aviv from the hotly disputed city of Jerusalem, all of which Israel claims as its capital, even though most nations don’t formally recognize that claim. Costa Rica and El Salvador had been the only two countries with embassies there until announcing that they would relocate.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC), which has a branch in Costa Rica, Centro Zionista de Costa Rica, expressed dismay, while the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it was “surprised and deeply troubled by the decision by Costa Rica to establish diplomatic relations and to exchange embassies with a non-existent state of Palestine.”
Marc Perelman writing in the The Jewish Daily Forward, indicated that Guatemala and the Dominican Republic may follow. In more detail, he writes:
Feb 25, 2008
Seizing upon the Bush administration’s recent push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, the Palestinian Authority has been working to expand the number of countries that recognize Palestine as a country.
The effort received a major boost when Costa Rica, one of the first countries to recognize Israel and, until recently, one of the very few to have an embassy in Jerusalem, decided in early February to establish diplomatic relations with a “Palestinian state.”
Costa Rica, a small Central American country, decided to open official ties with a “state of Palestine” through an official document signed February 5 by Costa Rica’s ambassador to the United Nations and Riyad Mansour, the P.A.’s U.N. mission chief. Previously, Costa Rica had no official diplomatic relations with the Palestinians.
“We are trying to expand our network of relationships,” (Mansour) said. “There is no doubt that the new U.S. stance has had a role in the decision of the countries who take their cues from Washington to be encouraged to take new steps.”
(snip)
Mansour explained that Costa Rica’s shift was important symbolically, since the country had voted in favor of the 1947 partition plan and, as such, was historically committed to a two-state solution. In addition, it is currently a rotating member of the U.N. Security Council, which often deals with Israeli-Palestinian issues.
Thus, it would seem that, while the Israel government is stonewalling on Bush’s most recent post-Annapolis pronouncements concerning the Road Map (stop the military occupation, a contiguous Palestinian state), offering the usual “security” red herring while building and expanding settlements in the West Bank, some countries like Costa Rica have apparently grown weary of the perennial deception and are beginning to act on their own.
Kudos to Costa Rica.