TEL AVIV: Paraguayan President Santiago Pena inaugurated his country’s embassy in Jerusalem on Thursday, becoming the sixth country to open an embassy in the Israeli capital.
“I am very happy that this is happening at this time, in the current reality of the world,” Pena said. “Many people talk, but not many people act. So for us, it is important for us not only to say but also to do.”
The inauguration included a traditional ribbon cutting, and the installation of a mezuzah, a case that consists of a scroll with verses from the Torah placed in the doorways and gates of Jewish buildings.
In 2018, Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes announced plans to move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem. However, his successor, Abdo Benitez, reversed the decision.
“I was very happy to see that during my service as Minister of Finance, the Paraguayan government made a very courageous decision, a very ambitious decision, to open the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem. I was very saddened a few months later when a new administration, driven mainly by revenge, internal revenge with no connection to the citizens of Israel, decided to move it back,” Pena said.
Most countries do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. Several countries, mostly European, have consulates and lower-level trade missions in the Israeli capital.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Pena, “We have a common interest; President Pena understands economics. He understands all the potential. When you look around, this is the product of the free economic revolution that we have made here, and if you had come here a few years ago, there would have been nothing here. But there were these hills – these are the same hills where King David declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago.”
Afterwards Netanyahu held a personal meeting with Pena in his office, during which the President invited the Prime Minister to visit Paraguay.
From there, Netanyahu and Pena attended a signing ceremony for several bilateral memoranda of understanding and agreements. (ANI/TPS)