The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, landed today at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, where he was received by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, for a three-day official visit in which he confirmed his intention to transfer the embassy to the Holy City. An announcement that the Israeli Prime Minister, Beniamin Netanyahu, welcomed.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu already discussed this matter with President Milei after his election and welcomes the fact that the president is keeping his promise,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office released within minutes of Milei’s landing in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu and Milei are scheduled to meet this Wednesday and will discuss “the continued strengthening of ties between both countries,” the note indicated.
Milei was received at the airport by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, to whom he confirmed his intention to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and to move the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem. “Thank you for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and for now announcing the transfer of the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem, capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” the minister cried.
For its part, Hamas condemned the Argentine president’s announcement to move the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. “We strongly condemn and deplore the announcement by the president of Argentina of his intention to move his country’s embassy in the Nazi-Zionist entity (Israel) to Jerusalem,” he said in a statement.
The Islamist group added that this step would represent “a violation of the rights of the Palestinian people to their land, and a violation of the norms of international law,” and urged the Argentine president “to reverse an unjust and wrong decision that places Argentina as a partner of the Zionist occupier.”
When Israel unilaterally annexed the eastern half of Jerusalem – occupied since 1967 – the international community moved its embassies to Tel Aviv in protest to that movement, since the eastern part was destined to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
However, since former US President Donald Trump reopened the US legation in Jerusalem in 2019, other countries such as Honduras, Guatemala or Kosovo have followed the same steps; and others like Hungary or Argentina have expressed their intention to do so.
After his arrival in Israel, Milei went to Jerusalem to visit the Wailing Wall, one of the sacred places of Judaism, and held a prayer with Rabbi Wahnish, a person of the president’s greatest confidence.
The rabbi is the person chosen by Milei – who is not Jewish but has embraced Judaism in recent times – to serve as ambassador when he moves the diplomatic office to Jerusalem, although Israel’s agreement remains.
After visiting the Western Wall, Milei is scheduled to meet with his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, at his official residence in Jerusalem. Tomorrow she will meet with Netanyahu, with Israeli businessmen and will visit the Holocaust Museum, in whose Forest of Remembrance she will plant a tree.
On Thursday, Milei’s last day in Israel, the president will visit the Nir Oz kibbutz, located a few kilometers from the border with the Gaza Strip and the target of the Hamas attacks in October, where a large community of Argentinian-Israelis lived.
