Tiny Pacific Island Of Nauru Recognizes Jerusalem As Capital Of Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Republic of Nauru, a Pacific island country, earlier this month recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz commended the island nation for its recognition on Wednesday evening in a tweet which also said: “We will continue to strengthen Jerusalem and to bring about the recognition and opening of diplomatic missions and embassies in our capital.”
Nauru’s mission to the United Nations in New York said in a letter dated August 16 to the Israeli mission that: “The Mission of Nauru has the honor to convey the decision of the Government of the Republic of Nauru to formally recognize the City of Jerusalem as the Capital City of the State of Israel.”
The president of Honduras will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Friday when he inaugurates a “diplomatic office” in Jerusalem, which he told reporters will be an extension of the Honduran embassy in Tel Aviv.
President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and officially moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in May. Guatemala moved its embassy to Jerusalem just two days later. Earlier this year, Paraguay also announced plans to move its embassy, but reversed the decision months later.
Government officials from several countries, including the Czech Republic, Romania, Lithuania, Australia and Brazil, have expressed interest in moving their embassies to Jerusalem. In March, Hungary opened a diplomatic trade mission in Jerusalem, which is considered a branch of the Hungarian Embassy in Tel Aviv.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO