Guatemala To Move Embassy To Jerusalem

President of Guatemala Jimmy Morales (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) give a joint press conference after signing bilateral agreements at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on November 29, 2016. Image by ABIR SULTAN/AFP/Getty Images
(JTA) — The president of Guatemala announced that he would move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem.
President Jimmy Morales in a Facebook post on Sunday said that he has instructed his country’s chancellor “to initiate the respective coordination so that it may be.” He said he made the decision following a conversation on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The leaders, he said, spoke about “the excellent relations that we have had as nations since Guatemala supported the creation of the state of Israel. One of the most important topics was the return of the embassy of Guatemala to Jerusalem.”
The announcement comes after President Trump earlier this month announced that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin taking steps to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guatemala’s embassy also currently is located in Tel Aviv.
Morales, who enjoys a large base of conservative Christian support, visited Israel in November 2016, to mark the 69th anniversary of the Partition Plan for Palestine vote in the United Nations. He was feted for the actions of Guatemala’s then-ambassador to the U.N., Dr. Jorge Garcia Granados, who enlisted Latin American states to vote in favor of the partition plan.
Shortly after his election in October 2015, Morales visited the synagogue in Guatemala City, met with members of the Jewish community and declared his desire to visit Israel. His tenure has seen a significant improvement in relations with Israel, including Guatemala’s positions at international meetings.
Guatemala is home to about 1,000 Jews out of a population of 15 million.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.