A new bill by MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) seeks to amend the Civil Service Law to prevent those who live "over the Green Line" to be ambassadors of the State of Israel.
The proposed law states: "No person shall be appointed an ambassador, consul or head of the Israeli mission in a foreign country, who lives in a ‘zone’ as defined in the extension of the validity of the Regulations Emergency (Judea and Samaria - Jurisdiction Offences and Legal Aid), 1967, or the sovereign territory of a foreign state ".
The proposal comes as a response after Brazil has refused to accept the appointment of Dani Dayan as ambassador to Brazil since he lives in Samaria and formerly was head of the Yesha Council.
MK Freij told Arutz Sheva, "Israel deliberately decided not to annex the settlements and as long as the country doesn’t, no one who lives in that area deserves to represent its national sovereignty abroad."
"Under Netanyahu's administration, the Foreign Ministry office has changed from representing Israel to the world, to challenging Israel against the world. Appointing a former head of the Yesha council was provocation – appointing a deputy foreign minister who seeks to raise the Israeli flag over the Al-Aqsa (mosque) is provocation," he added, referring to Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home).
According to Freij, the bill seeks to prevent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from “using foreign affairs as an attempt to legitimize the settlers, the settlements and the occupation”.
Freij further explained his position stating it should be just as unlikely, immoral and impractical that an Israeli citizen, who permanently lives in a foreign country, will be sent to head the Israeli Consulate in that country.
“The representative must truly be able to relate to the juridical and administrative needs of the entire State of Israel.”