Israel to Close Philadelphia Consulate

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Looks final this time: “The Consulate General of Israel in Philadelphia will close its doors on Monday, August 15, 2016,” confirms Marsha Flagler, executive assistant and Speakers’ Bureau coordinator for the office, which covered the mid-Atlantic region.

The Consulate has already stopped passport services.

The closing was announced last winter, as the Jerusalem Post reported here. But Philadelphia Israeli consular closings had been previously proposed — and averted, thanks to pressure from business and Jewish groups. Israel still has offices in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami and other U.S. cities, and has been expanding its network in China and other trading nations.

With the loss of Canada’s consulate in 2012, the Israeli pullout leaves Philadelphia, home to a string of European embassies when it was the nation’s capital long ago, with a shrunken diplomatic corps composed of just three full-service Consulates-General, from Italy, Mexico and Panama.

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