BREAKING NEWS

At Knesset, Guatemalan president speaks of bolstering Israel ties

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Tuesday visited the Knesset, where he took part in a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1947 vote on the United Nations partition plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate for Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein thanked Morales for Guatemala’s activism in favor of the plan 69 years ago.
“The ties between Israel and Guatemala are deep and historic. Before Israel’s establishment, on the eve of the UN decision on November 29, we still remember and appreciate the actions of Guatemala’s ambassador to the UN, Dr. Jorge Garcia Granados, who enlisted Latin American states to vote in favor of the partition plan. It could be that without Guatemala, the resolution on that fateful day would not have passed, and history would be very different,” Edelstein said.
Edelstein thanked Morales for his country’s continued support for Israel and said the visit expresses both states’ readiness to increase cooperation and strengthen ties.
The Guatemalan president said he was happy that Guatemala was among the first countries to recognize Israel upon its establishment in 1948.
“In this visit, we want to deepen the dialogue between the two countries and strengthen bilateral ties,” Morales stated. “As allies, the excellent relations between our countries will continue.”