Deputy FM apologizes
Israel’s deputy foreign minister officially apologized to Turkey over a public reprimand of its ambassador. Daniel Ayalon apologized for calling in Ahmet Oguz Celikkol and embarrassing him in front of TV cameras after the Turkish prime minister’s recent verbal attack on Israel and a new anti-Israel Turkish TV drama. “Although we have our differences of opinion on several issues, they should be discussed and solved only through open, reciprocal and respectful diplomatic channels between our two governments,” read Ayalon’s letter, which was given to the Turkish ambassador to send to Ankara. The ambassador was made to sit on a lower chair than Ayalon and the table between them only displayed an Israeli flag. Ayalon did not shake Celikkol’s hand. Turkish President Abdullah Gul told Al Jazeera he had threatened to recall his ambassador if Israel did not issue a formal apology.
Jordan wants scrolls
The Jordanian government has asked the United Nations to help it take the Dead Sea Scrolls from Israel. Jordan last week filed a complaint with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, claiming that Israel stole the 900 ancient religious text fragments from an eastern Jerusalem museum during the Six-Day War in 1967. Canada rejected a request by Jordan earlier this month to confiscate the documents under international law. The scrolls recently completed a successful exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. A Jordanian antiquities official said in a statement that Jordan has documents to prove it owns the scrolls.
Jordanian suspect arrested
An Amman taxi driver was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the last week bombing of an Israeli diplomatic convoy in Jordan, Al-Arabiya reported. No one was injured in the attack, in which two remote-controlled bombs were detonated close to the Allenby Bridge crossing just as a convoy of Israeli diplomats visiting Jordan passed. Four diplomats and two security guards were heading to Israel for the weekend from Amman, according to reports. After the bombing, Jordan’s foreign minister reportedly called Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, who was not in the convoy, to assure him that all efforts were being made to arrest those responsible for the attack.
Book fair to recognize Israel
Israel will be the guest of honour at the 17th International Festival of Books in Budapest. The four-day annual book fair, the biggest literary event in the country, opens April 22 and is being organized by the Association of Hungarian Book Publishers and Distributors. Renowned Israeli author Amos Oz will be a featured participant and receive the prestigious Budapest Grand Prize. The trade fair will coincide with the publication in Hungarian translation of Oz’s 2007 book The Rhymes of Life and Death. Hungary was the guest of honour at the 2009 Jerusalem Book Fair in recognition of two decades of cordial diplomatic relations between the two countries that resumed following a prolonged absence ending in the collapse of Communist rule in Hungary in 1989. The Budapest book fair will feature some 300 literary and commercial programs. For the first time, it also will include an international antiquarian book fair.