Prime Minister Yair Lapid chaired an emergency discussion on the activity of the Jewish Agency in Russia, this morning.
Participating in the discussion were Minister of Aliyah and Integration Pnina Tamano Shata, Minister of Construction and Housing Zeev Elkin, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, Prime Minister's Office Director General Na'ama Schultz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General Alon Ushpiz, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Director General for Eurasia, the Deputy Director of the National Security Council and the National Security Council Foreign Policy Director, as well as Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization representatives – Jewish Agency CEO and Director General Amira Ahronoviz and WZO Chairman Yaakov Hagoel.
Prime Minister said that the relations with Russia are important for Israel, and that the large Jewish community in Russia is important and is brought up in all diplomatic discourse with the administration in Moscow. Closing the Jewish Agency offices would be a serious event that would affect relations.
The Prime Minister instructed the legal delegation to be prepared to depart for Moscow as soon as the Russian approval for talks is received and to make every effort to exhaust the legal dialogue alongside advancing the high-level diplomatic dialogue on the issue.
It was also agreed that the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would continue to coordinate this matter with all relevant parties