A representative of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team was among a group of conservative lawmakers and officials from the U.S. and Europe who boycotted a meeting with Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely this week over her decision to exclude a far-right Swedish pol from the briefing, the Times of Israel reported Wednesday.



A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry told the Times that the delegation had canceled its briefing with Hotovely (pictured above) because she would not allow the attendance Swedish pol Kristina Winberg, whom the spokesperson described as “a member of a party with neo-Nazi tendencies.”

A representative for the group also told the Times that the delegation was boycotting the meeting in protest of Winberg’s exclusion.

Becky Norton Dunlop, deputy to the senior adviser on Trump’s transition team for policy and personnel, was among the delegation scheduled to participate in the briefing. She is in Israel for the three-day Jerusalem Leaders Summit, a gathering of conservative politicians and advocates. The meeting with Hotovely in the Knesset was canceled just hours before it was scheduled to begin Wednesday, the Times of Israel said.

“The Swedish representative is a member of a party with neo-Nazi tendencies and therefore the Foreign Ministry decided not to include her in the meeting with Hotovely,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told the Times. “Unfortunately the entire group decided to cancel the meeting.”

Winberg’s participation also prompted Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to cancel a speech at the Jerusalem Leader’s Summit on Tuesday, Nahshon confirmed to the Times. Winberg was excluded from a briefing with Foreign Ministry’s deputy director Jeremy Issacharoff on Tuesday, the Times reported.

Winberg is a member of the European Parliament for the Sweden Democrats, an ultra-nationalist party which has taken hardline anti-immigration views.