Israeli diplomats and consular officials in New York will henceforth have to pay their own parking tickets. Moreover, if they amass too many tickets they are likely to have their “CD” plates removed by the Consulate. Orders to this effect have been transmitted to New York by the recently-appointed director general of the Foreign Ministry, Yosef Ciechanover.
The Israelis have consistently been among the most frequent offenders in New York, and reports of their parking habits have been prominently featured in American media, to the serious discomfiture of the Ministry here and of many Jewish community leaders and members in New York.
Ciechanover himself served in New York for several years, until his appointment to the director general’s post, as head of the Israel Defense Ministry’s purchasing mission. He thus witnessed at first hand the bad image that stories of the Israeli diplomats’ parking offenses caused the Consulate and other Israeli official representations. Ciechanover told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he was anxious for the Jewish community in New York to know that the Ministry had now taken these energetic steps designed at putting a stop to the parking situation. (By David Landau)
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