One day after radical Islamist terrorists killed 12 people in Paris, Israel’s Embassy in Uruguay was evacuated Thursday by emergency teams in response to a bomb scare.
Israeli diplomatic staff and visitors emptied out of the Montevideo World Trade Center complex where the embassy is located, after a “suspicious item” was found in the building.
According to a report in the local El Pais, the device was actually placed by the country’s security officials to test local police readiness and response times. The suspicious device had no explosive capabilities and could not have detonated, according to Chief Alfredo Larramendi of the Explosives Brigade.
On November 29, 1947, Uruguay was among the nations who recommended that Israel be admitted to membership in the United Nations. However, on November 29, 2012, Uruguay UN representative Jose Luis Cancela voted in favor of a resolution to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to a non-member observer state.
The measure passed in a landslide vote that has since allowed the Palestinians to join hundreds of international treaties and organizations – including most recently the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
PA leaders are now proceeding to charge Israel with committing war crimes in PA territory and crimes against humanity from the period starting June 13, 2014 – the day after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian Hamas terrorists.
Cancela told the world body after the UN vote his government believed there could not be a solution for Middle East peace without the existence of two consolidates States. He expressed Uruguay’s support of the “States of Israel and Palestine to live in peace, within safe and recognized borders” but said there was “no replacement for bilateral dialogue, which should resume as soon as possible.”