Just days after her inauguration as the first female president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum called for the recognition of the State of Palestine as a step towards achieving peace in the Middle East, and reaffirmed her country’s longstanding support for the Palestinian people.
“We condemn the aggression currently taking place,” said Sheinbaum, “and we also believe that the state of Palestine must be fully recognized, just as Israel is.”
The president condemned the violence in the Middle East and outlined what Mexico’s position will be during her term in office. “This has been Mexico’s position for many years,” she pointed out, “and it remains the same. We seek peace above all.”
Speaking at her daily press conference, the new president addressed Israel’s actions in the region, stressing that mutual recognition of a Palestinian state is key to finding a diplomatic solution to end the violence in Gaza. Sheinbaum also stressed that “war will never lead to a good outcome,” urging a peaceful resolution to the conflict and calling on international institutions to take a more active role. “The United Nations should be much more proactive as an institution in the pursuit and construction of world peace,” she insisted.
Furthermore, the Mexican president recalled that the previous Mexican government, led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, condemned the aggression of the Israeli government. “The previous government condemned the aggressions of the Israeli state against Palestine and what is currently happening in the world. There is concern about the risk of this conflict expanding to Lebanon and Syria, which could greatly complicate the situation in the Middle East.”
She also mentioned that Mexico joined Chile’s complaint at the International Court of Justice regarding Israel’s disproportionate response following the attacks of 7 October last year. “The international community is aware of the growing complexity of the Middle East conflict with its potential for expansion,” she noted. The leaders of both Chile and Mexico emphasized the latter’s commitment to international legal mechanisms in seeking justice and accountability.
Claudia Sheinbaum is the daughter of Jewish parents, but she rarely discusses her heritage. When she does, she tends to express a more distant connection to Judaism than many others in Mexico’s Jewish community, which has been present since the country’s early days and now numbers about 59,000 people in a population of 130 million.
“Of course I know where I come from, but my parents were always atheists,” Sheinbaum told the New York Times in a 2020 interview. “I never belonged to the Jewish community, and we grew up kind of removed from that.”
Sheinbaum’s Jewish heritage has made her the target of a smear campaign. False rumors have circulated that she is not a Mexican citizen and was “born in Bulgaria”.
Despite being part of the Latin American Jewish community, which is often associated with Israel, she supports left-wing governments in the region, such as those in Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua and Mexico, many of which have a strong anti-Israel stance.
Since the war broke out last year, Sheinbaum has condemned attacks on civilians, called for a ceasefire and expressed her support for a Palestinian state. Her consistent stance highlights her long-term commitment to advocating for peace and the recognition of Palestinian rights. Moreover, she has extended a helping hand to some 30,000 Palestinians living in Mexico.
“Many of my relatives from that generation were exterminated in concentration camps,” she wrote in a 2009 letter to La Jornada, in which she also condemned what she described as the “murder of Palestinian civilians” during an Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip.
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