Israeli-Costa Rican Relations Turn Frosty

In two short years, Israel’s relationship with Costa Rica has gone from friendly to frosty. Following the announcement on February 5 that Costa Rica would establish diplomatic relations with what it called “the state of Palestine,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday postponed a meeting between the Jewish state’s ambassador and the president of the small Central American country. The deterioration of relations between the two countries started more than two years ago, when Costa Rica moved its embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem. Until 2006, Costa Rica had been one of two countries with embassies in Jerusalem, the other being El Salvador. The status of Jerusalem, according to the United Nations, is unresolved after Israel won the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War.