In early March, Janet Rogan (title: Britain's consul general in Tel Aviv) was part of an economic British delegation led by Ed Balls, the British economic secretary to the Treasury. This delegation arrived at the Jerusalem office of the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, when they arrived, She, Janet Rogan, was ordered to undergo a "physical search".
Even though she has full diplomatic immunity... the guards strip searched her.
More after the fold
The body of this diary is based on this article: British consul strip searched at Israeli PM's office
Quote:
The names of the visitors had been given in advance, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said yesterday.
But security guards ordered Ms Rogan to undergo a physical search, the paper said. She refused and presented her diplomatic identity card. However, she was then made to step behind a partition and to undergo a physical search, which included removing her blouse. The Yedioth described the search as a "prolonged, needless and humiliating process" and said the diplomat was visibly upset.
Janet Rogan did write a formal complaint and an Israeli foreign ministry official did apologize to her.
A short bio link on her.
Janet Rogan is Deputy Head of Mission and Consul General at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv. She joined the FCO in 1986 and has served at the British Embassy in Beijing, where she was part of the negotiations for handing back Hong Kong; and in Sarajevo, where the focus was post-conflict nation state-building. She was then seconded to SHAPE, the NATO military headquarters, as the UK Political Adviser from where she volunteered to go to Iraq as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority. She has been in Israel since August 2005.
The official statements about the incident on both sides. First the Israeli side:
A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office told the Yedioth: "Given reservations about the manner in which treatment was extended in this case, an investigative team was appointed. In light of the team's findings, the procedures were updated and lessons were learned, and an apology was issued for any emotional pain that was caused by the affair."
Then the British:
A British embassy spokeswoman last night confirmed that the incident took place. "She was subjected to an intrusive security check and the British embassy took up the issue with the prime minister's office who have since apologised and told us they have instituted procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again," the spokeswoman said.
My first, visceral reaction when I read this was that the guard, hell, the entire guard team on duty at the time, should be strip searched in public.
This type of action should never have taken placed. Either the senior guard on duty (and one has to assume he communicated up his chain of command, so they also share in this action) was incompetent, or the Israeli government meant for this to happen. Or, maybe a combination of both of the above.
There is also an ongoing series of sex related problems with various high Israeli government officials.
You have Israeli President Moshe Katsav charged with rape.
Also, you have Haim Ramon, a former justice minister, guilty of indecently assaulting a female soldier.
The people around a leader will pick up and adjust to his standards of behavior. So, the security guards will reflect their attitude towards women as well. So the guards will begin to "twist" the rules to allow the President and Justice Minister to assault women.
I'm not sure what went on behind the scenes (what DID the UK do to Israel that was so bad that Israel retaliated by "strip searching" a senior British diplomat?), or what the security guards (and their chain of command) were thinking, but there is no good way to see this action. Nor can you dismiss, the, in my opinion, possibility that there are more incidents that have happened in the past, but were ignored/covered up. (these were Ehud Olmert's security guards, what do they do to non-diplomatic female visitors?)
thank you for reading
jeff