A senior Foreign Ministry staffer told Israel Today (Saturday) that the cancellation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Israel, scheduled for tomorrow, came after the committee gave up on talks with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and received Histadrut approval to take sanctions.
Last night (Friday), Lavrov canceled his planned visit to Israel.
In a statement on his behalf, his bureau said the cancellation was due to "personal reasons."
Lavrov was also scheduled to visit the Palestinian Authority and other countries in the region.
Lavrov was due to discuss two important issues during his visit: the nuclear talks in Vienna, in which Russia is also participating;
And the Iranian establishment in Syria, in the shadow of the attacks attributed to Israel in the region.
"The crisis in the Foreign Ministry has been going on for years, our terms of service are eroding and even agreements signed in the past with the Ministry of Finance are not honored," the senior member of the committee told Israel Today.
"We hoped that when the new government stabilized, that with a foreign minister who had said many times in the past that Foreign Ministry workers were on Israel's international front in the world, things would change. We were patient, but nothing happened."
Did you talk about it with Lapid?
"We met with him once and a half. He gave us sympathy and nice statements and asked us to wait until after the budget was approved, but nothing happened. Even over the weekend we heard nothing from him - not even a message on WhatsApp."
The cancellation of the visit of the senior Russian personality at this sensitive time, when the nuclear talks are taking place in Russia on the one hand, and the fear of the Iranian establishment in Syria on the other, was perceived by many as a disproportionate step.
The committee rejects the criticism.
"Every time we do something that could harm Israel's foreign relations," the senior committee official admits, "but there are things in life that have not been harmed, Israel's security, for example. That is not the case here. If the foreign minister thought it was disproportionate, he could "Contact the Labor Court to prevent this, as has been done in the past. This was not done this time, and by the way, in the past it has not even happened once that the Labor Court has decided that we have taken a disproportionate step."
The Foreign Ministry Workers' Committee responded: "We very much regret the damage to Israel's foreign relations. We reiterate our call on Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to roll up his sleeves and resolve the Foreign Ministry crisis before any further damage is caused."
The Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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