Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely flew to Romania on Tuesday in what her office described as the first leg of a campaign to persuade countries to follow the US lead and move their embassies to Occupied Jerusalem the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.
According to the Jerusalem Post Hotovely is slated to meet in Bucharest with Romania’s prime minister and foreign minister as well as with the heads of both houses of the parliament.
In December Liviu Dragnea the president of the Chamber of Deputies said that Romania – which has close relations with Israel – should “seriously consider” relocating its embassy to Jerusalem the same source added.
After Romania Hotovely will fly to Prague and hold meetings with the top leadership there with the same purpose in mind.
The Czech Republic is arguably Israel’s strongest ally inside the European Union and President Milos Zeman has said it should move the embassy though Prime Minister Andrej Babis has denied there are any immediate plans to do so the Jerusalem Post wrote.
Romania and the Czech Republic were two of only six of the EU’s 28 countries to abstain at the UN General Assembly vote in December that condemned the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The rest of the EU countries voted for the resolution none of them opposed it.
Hotovely’s office said the deputy foreign minister is also considering a trip to Latin America to lobby on behalf of the embassy move though no locations or dates have yet been selected.
On December 6 2017 the US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Occupied Jerusalem as the capital of the self-proclaimed Israeli state sparking widespread protests and universal condemnation.
