Foreign Ministry: British Ambassador overstepped his authority Ariel Kahane, Makor Rishon (front-page), July 14 2011 The

Foreign Ministry criticized British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould for criticizing the boycott law passed by the Knesset on Monday. A high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said he was stunned by the ambassadors remarks. He told Makor Rishon that Gould had overstepped diplomatic rules when he said in interview to the press that Britain was concerned about the law and that it undercut the freedom of speech in Israel. The Foreign Ministry official said that the ministry had taken note of Goulds statements and that at the first opportunity it would let him know that this was unacceptable. He said that it was not customary for an official representative of a foreign state to express an opinion about internal legislative processes taking place in the country in which he serves. This is like if the Israeli ambassador in Spain were to express an opinion on same-gender marriages in Spain or about the steps that US administration took after September 11 which many think badly damaged individual freedom, said the official. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in fact did not criticize the Jewish ambassador. Talking to reporters in the Knesset, he said that he supported the boycott law and said, we cannot demand of others (to stop boycotting Israel) what we do not do ourselves. About Gould, Lieberman said that he was familiar with the boycott issue from his previous position in Britain and that in talks he had held with him in the past, Gould in fact understood very well the problem of the phenomenon of boycotting Israel.