Israel's deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely and Jordan's foreign minister Nasser Judeh both breached diplomatic protocol when they snapped at each other during a UN meeting Thursday over the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a meeting that was ironically held for the countries that donate to the Palestinian Authority to discuss positive progress between Israel and Palestine, the representatives of the two countries got into a heated debate after Hotovely concluded her speech, reported Israeli daily Haaretz .
In her address, she reportedly began by mentioning the religious significance of the Temple Mount for Jews and then went on to accuse Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of incitement in the issue for saying earlier that Israelis defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque with their boots.
Hotovely also slammed Palestinians, saying that Israeli children dream of becoming engineers to benefit the progress of their country while Palestinian children dream of becoming engineers to make bombs.
Following those remarks, instead of saying his prepared speech as per the meeting's protocol, Judeh reportedly said "I have a written address but I don't plan to give it because I can't not respond to what we've heard from the Israeli representative."
He then defended Abbas's comments by saying that when Israeli forces enter Al-Aqsa Mosque it really does offend the sensibilities of 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world and that it is liable to set off a religious war.
In addition, the minister sarcastically replied to Hotovely's comments saying that Israel had taken economic steps to benefit the West Bank's Palestinians, as he said that Hotovely's address would lead one to believe that the West Bank's situation had never been better and that everything was "hunky-dory."
He sarcastically added that Hotovely's words made it seem like there's no need for negotiations or a two-state solution and that Israel can simply make some economic gestures and everything would be fine.
Hotovely angrily accused Judeh of "distorting history" and following in the footsteps of Yasser Arafat in denying the existence of a Jewish temple at the Temple Mount, according to the Jerusalem Post .
Hotovely also interrupted Judeh other times to engage in arguments, which further breached the meeting's diplomatic protocol and led to the meeting's chairman calling her to order twice, according to reports.
Tensions have been high between Israel and Jordan, after the continued clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa, which is under the control of the Jordanian Waqf trust.
Jordan's King Abdullah II has repeatedly threatened serious consequences if the violence at the holy site ensues and has also brought up the issue in his U.N. address to the UN General Assembly this week, saying that Jordan rejects threats to Jerusalem's "Arab character".