JERUSALEM: Israeli foreign ministry employees on partial strike accused the Mossad on Friday of breaking their picket line and said they would only cooperate with the spy agency in cases of "life or death."
The employees’ committee chairman criticized the Mossad for stepping in to help organize a trip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Greece next week after embassy staff refused to assist with the visit.
"It is unacceptable that the prime minister would use another body, which is strictly in charge of security matters, to break a strike," Hanan Goder told public radio.
In response, diplomats on strike over wages would "provide no aid to Mossad representatives" at embassies and consulates around the world except in matters of "life or death," he said.
Israeli diplomats in June kicked off their campaign for higher wages by wearing jeans and sandals to work and causing a series of diplomatic faux pas.
Some visiting foreign dignitaries have since been welcomed to Israel without the customary ceremony and others abandoned by their foreign ministry drivers, forcing them to ask their embassies to send cars.
