The Israeli government has rejected New Zealand’s new ambassador Jonathan Curr because he was also accredited to the Palestinian Authority.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully said that the dual representation’s never been a problem in the past, according to NewsTalkZB.

“McCully says there are various ways of achieving diplomatic representation under the changed circumstances and he’ll be working on them over the next few days,” the news site explained. One would be to have separate representation to Israel and the “West Bank” using ambassadors based in other neighboring countries.

Curr was heading to to Israel this week to present his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin, the leftist Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. But when he told the foreign ministry he also planned to travel to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas as well, Israel objected.

They told Mr Curr that it violated diplomatic protocol, according to Haaretz, and that unless his dual credentials were cancelled he could not be ambassador to Israel.