Two weeks before the UN General Assembly vote to condemn President Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a request from the president of the republic of Nauru, an 8 square mile island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, population 11,347, and donated Nauru a $72,000 wastewater treatment plant.
Two weeks later, Nauru was among the nine UN members who voted against the UN resolution, Ynet reported Thursday.
In addition to the US and Israel, the countries that voted against the condemnation were Nauru, Palau, Togo, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Guatemala, and Honduras.
In the notes supporting the prime minister’s decision, a special committee chaired by Foreign Ministry Director-General Yuval Rotem, Legal Advisor Tal Becker, and Spokesperson Sima Fischer, stated: “Nauru is an island state in the South Pacific. It is the smallest independent island in the world in terms of population and area. This state maintains close ties with Israel. The President of the State of Nauru asked the Prime Minister for assistance in the form of a sewage treatment plant adapted to the island’s unique needs.”
The sewage facility will serve a school on the island. The Foreign Ministry contacted a company that developed the unique sewage treatment facility, and decided to cover the cost of the project, including the costs of transporting the facility by air and flights and accommodations for the accompanying work crew.
The same committee approved gifting a $115,000 mobile desalination plant to India – the same plant from which Netanyahu and Indian PM Narendra Modi drank during the latter’s visit to Israel.
Alas, India, population 1.4 billion, voted against Israel at the UN vote last week.
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