© Channel 10 News screenshotEthiopia denies ever having considered move or recalling ambassador after footage shows police rudely addressing, evicting Ethiopian monks from Jerusalem complex
Ethiopia has reportedly been considering moving its embassy to Jerusalem, but will no longer do so following a recent incident where Israeli police forcibly evicted Ethiopian monks from a complex owned by the Ethiopian church in Jerusalem.
"Moving the Ethiopian embassy to Jerusalem was under consideration," said Eliezer Yasu Gil, a lawyer representing the embassy told Channel 10 on Monday. "For now this process is frozen."
A spokesperson for the Ethiopian embassy, however, on Wednesday denied that moving the embassy was under consideration and said the lawyer did not represent the mission.
US President Donald Trump bucked longstanding international consensus with his December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, when he also announced he would move the embassy to the city. Guatemala and Paraguay have also since moved their embassies.
Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv and have balked at moving them until the international legal status of the city has been resolved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel claims the entire city as its eternal capital. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as their future capital and were infuriated by the embassy moves.
In addition to the US, Guatemala and Paraguay, a number of other countries have expressed interest in moving their embassies to Israel, among them Honduras, the Czech Republic and Romania.
It had not previously been reported that Ethiopia was considering moving its embassy. Furthermore, the lawyer said that Ethiopia was also considering recalling its ambassador over the incident.
In a statement to The Times of Israel Wednesday, the embassy denied it had ever considered moving the embassy to Jerusalem and said it was not considering recalling its ambassador. It said Gil does not represent the embassy "and thus cannot speak on behalf of it."
The Ethiopian ambassador to Israel, Tsegay Berha Hadera, warned last week that the forced eviction could spark a diplomatic crisis if not addressed immediately.
Amateur video footage aired by Channel 10 news showed police turning up last week at the complex on Jerusalem's Heleni Hamalka Street, rudely addressing the monks, ordering them out of the building and trying to arrest one of them.
Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told The Times of Israel that the officers came to investigate a suspected burglary near the complex, and asked the monks for identification. When they didn't provide it, he said, police accused the monks of trespassing.
"If you don't show me identification, you don't own the place. Now everyone get out," one officer said in footage of the incident seen by The Times of Israel.
The complex houses an Ethiopian church and two early 20th century buildings originally designed as apartments for Ethiopian pilgrims.
The buildings have almost always been rented out, most recently to the Israel Broadcasting Authority's radio service.
The oldest monk, 84, reportedly needed medical treatment after being thrown to the ground.
Channel 10 reported that police locked the complex, even though the monks had provided the documentation to prove the church owned the buildings.
The complex was being protected by security guards.
A police statement said, "It's not at all clear how criminal behavior such as this, which included cursing and violence toward the police and refusal of arrest according to the law, have changed into a torrent so slanted against the truth. One of those involved resisted arrest and injured a police officer on the hand."
Sue Surkes contributed to this report.
Israel is a racist, apartheid state. A rogue nation with undeclared nuclear capabilities. A nation that is in the act of annexing lands not theirs, a nation that balks at international law and human rights, a nation that regularly terrorizes the occupied people they are administering to. A nation that claims there is not enough water for arabs in an area while they build thousands of houses for occupying jews in the same area who will have plenty of water.
They are a nation that feel they are above ANY form of criticism since they are God's chosen people. If you say ANYTHING about them you are classified as racist or antisemitic. So they are a nation that believe they are above the scrutiny of ANYONE.
They should be treated EXACTLY as N. Korea has since the fifties. Complete isolation from other societies and the banking sector, almost a complete blockade on commercial goods being imported, and they should be surrounded by a anti missile shield that they do NOT control for their own safety, and the safety of others who they might want to shoot.
Their skies should also be declared a UN enforced no fly-zone as they have shown the tendency to willingly bomb anything they feel like, be it their own biggest allies' naval ships, or whoever's country they feel like. All they have to do is say "Hezbollah" and it is fine.
Israel is a country of an even more politically and morally bankrupt ideals than even the US.
AND NO I am not anti-semitic as I am only talking about POLITICAL double standards on policies. Any people are always as screwed up as their morals and politics allow any people. Who cares if you are jewish? I am speaking out against extremisms that can happen anywhere, just for some reason they are ok in Israel and the US (and Saudi Arabia) but BAD for anyone, anywhere else to do.