Israeli FM: Embassy of Hungary to Open in Jerusalem

According to an announcement by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Budapest on Wednesday, Hungary will be the first EU member to establish an embassy in Jerusalem.

Speaking at a synagogue connected to the Chabad movement, Cohen stated that Hungary would formally announce the relocation “in several weeks,” adding that it is “great news for Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for over 3,000 years.”
Since 2019, the nation of central Europe has kept a trade office there.

Budapest would be at odds with the official stance of the European Union, which does not legally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital if an embassy were to be moved there.

Following the election of President Santiago Pea, whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated by phone on Tuesday night, Paraguay is likewise prepared to move its embassy back to Jerusalem.

Netanyahu praised Pea for his desire to move the Paraguayan embassy back to Jerusalem as soon as he took office in August.

In addition to Kosovo, Honduras, Guatemala, and the United States all have embassies in Jerusalem.

During a four-day, four-country diplomatic tour in central Europe, Cohen stopped in Budapest.

His itinerary calls for him to continue from Hungary to Austria before returning to Israel after first visiting Croatia and Slovakia.

During his visit to Budapest, Cohen spoke with his Hungarian colleague, Péter Szijjárto, who promised to file a lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority’s “pay for Slay” program, which pays out money to terrorists and their families, with the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The chief representative of Israel stated that he had congratulated Szijjárto “for his firm stance against the Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists who killed Jews” and that they had spoken about the Iranian threat “and the need to take immediate steps” to stop its nuclear development.

He added, “We discussed enhancing cooperation in the areas of economy, energy, and tourism.”