Last Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen revealed that Hungary would be moving its embassy to Jerusalem—the first move of its kind by a European Union nation—within a few weeks. On Thursday, Hungary’s Ambassador to Israel, Levente Benko, walked back the news a bit—not denying but not confirming the move, just toning down expectations.
“We have been operating a trade office in Jerusalem since 2019, but no decision has so far been made on any further steps,” Benko said.
On Wednesday, Cohen told a group at a Chabad gathering in Budapest that “Hungary will be the first country in the European Union that will announce in a number of weeks that it is moving its embassy to Jerusalem.”
The move was first rumored in March when senior Israeli officials said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban had reached an agreement to move the embassy.
Currently, the United States, Guatemala, Kosovo, and Honduras have full embassies in Jerusalem. If Hungary does move its embassy to the capital city of Israel, it will be a first—the European Union countries oppose such a move until there is a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
During Cohen’s visit to Hungary this week, the government did agree to submit a brief supporting Israel in the open-ended investigation by the International Criminal Court regarding possible war crimes by both Israelis and Palestinians.
And Hungary agreed to speak out more in the EU against the “pay-for-slay” stipends the Palestinian Authority gives to convicted terrorists or their families for their attacks on Israelis.
Also, this week, Paraguay’s newly elected president, Santiago Pena, said that once he enters office in August, he plans to move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem. Paraguay moved its embassy to Jerusalem five years ago but then moved it back to Tel Aviv four months later. Israel then closed its embassy in Paraguay.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Pena to congratulate him on his win and the decision to move the embassy back to Jerusalem.
