DPA
1 min read
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with Argentine President Javier Milei in Jerusalem. Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO/dpa
Argentine President Javier Milei started a three-day visit to Israel on Sunday, during which he plans to officially inaugurate Argentina’s embassy in Jerusalem.
Milei, considered a close ally of the Jewish state, will also be awarded the Israeli president’s Medal of Honour for his continued support. This is the Argentine leader’s third visit within two years.
To mark Israel’s 78th Independence Day, he will light a torch. The independence celebrations follow the Hebrew calendar and begin this year on Tuesday evening. The state of Israel was founded on May 14, 1948.
The announcement of a direct flight between Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires is expected to be announced at a meeting between Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The visit will also focus on Milei’s push to deepen and expand Israel’s relations with other Latin American countries.
Jerusalem – controversial site for embassies
In a speech in the Israeli parliament last year, Milei had already announced the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem. Moves of embassies to Jerusalem are internationally controversial because they could also be seen as recognizing Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of their future independent state.
Israel captured the eastern part of the previously divided city in the 1967 Six-Day War. It claims all of Jerusalem as its capital.
The United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first presidency and some other countries followed suit.
