Guatemala moves its Embassy to Jerusalem

In May, Guatemala will move its embassy to Jerusalem, two days after the US embassy move. This was announced by President Jimmy Morales on Sunday at the annual AIPAC conference in Washington. 

Already in December, the Central American state had recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Morales met Netanyahu at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington. He justified his decision with the sentence: “It is the right thing to do.”

“There’s a rule – the reciprocity rule. We believe that, with Israel, we have been good friends ever since the establishment of the Jewish state,”  he commented in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. What he exactly meant with this statement, however, he did not specify.

In his address to the committee, Morales said that Trump’s move “opened space” for other nations to do what they know to be right – but for one reason or another did not have the courage or conviction to do so.

 

Jimmy Morales affirms the friendship between Guatemala and Israel on Twitter

 

Cover Photo: Morales and Netanyahu in Washington / Source: @jimmymoralesgt on Twitter

Damaris (BA in Media Communications and MA in Israel Studies) lives in Jerusalem and writes as an independent journalist.