The Ukraine-Israel controversies over the status of Israeli settlements including Jerusalem are over. Ukraine’s permanent envoy in the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko said that in his interview with Yevropeiska Pravda.
‘In 2016, we abstained from voting for the resolution on the status of Israeli settlements on the Palestine-occupied territories, including Jerusalem. I’d say we both actually benefited from the pause in relations announced by Israel. We had a chance to sit and sort things out,’ he said.
Yelchenko said Ukraine explained its stance to Israel.
‘The situation is tightly related to what’s going on in Crimea. We cannot selectively abide by the international law in one case and disobey it in another. Such approach matters to us in all principal cases. So I guess this topic is off the agenda. As the UN General Assembly considered this issue (about Jerusalem, - 112 International), we did not vote at all. Submitting this issue at the session of General Assembly, to us, would add to escalation around the status of Jerusalem which is already serious enough,' he said.
Yelchenko added that while Israel claims Jerusalem its capital, Ukraine considers Tel Aviv to be the capital of Israel – like many states that keep their embassies in Tel Aviv. ‘This is why we opened our embassy there as well,’ he said.
