Ukrainian lawmakers want embassy moved to Jerusalem

Nearly one-fifth of Ukraine parliament members have co-signed a draft resolution urging their new president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there, JTA reported Friday.

Of the 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada, 86 signed on as co-authors of a bill submitted for a vote.

Parliament calls on “the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to transfer the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel to its capital, the city of Jerusalem,” reads the explanatory note to the bill.

The embassy is currently in Tel Aviv.

A vote has not yet been scheduled for the measure, which will not be binding on the government if it passes, noted JTA.

US President Donald Trump in 2017 recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and later relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Following Trump’s announcement, Guatemala also relocated its embassy to Jerusalem. Paraguay moved its embassy to Jerusalem as well, but Paraguayan President Mario Abdo later reversed the previous administration’s decision and said his country’s embassy would move back to Tel Aviv.

Romania and Honduras both recently announced plans to relocate their countries’ embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while Hungary opened a new trade office in western Jerusalem in March.

The Verkhovna Rada has seen several failed initiatives to have Ukraine follow the US recognition in 2017 of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but the issue has never received the support of so many lawmakers, noted JTA.

Last month, Vlodymyr Zelensky, a Jewish actor, was elected president of Ukraine. During his inauguration speech earlier this week, he said Ukrainians need to “defend their country like Israelis,” in addition to “learning to live in coexistence like the Swiss.”

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(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

 

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