Orban is visiting Israel but not the PA, a move which is viewed as a diplomatic humiliation to PA head Mahmoud Abbas and a gesture towards Israel.
By: United with Israel Staff
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Israel on Wednesday on a three-day official visit.
Orban will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Chief Rabbi David Lau. He will also visit the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, where he will lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance.
Orban’s visit “will promote the good bilateral relations as expressed, inter alia, by Hungary’s support of Israel’s position in European and international fora and by emphasizing the importance of the continued struggle against anti-Semitism,” Israel’s foreign ministry stated.
The visit is taking place a year after Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary, where he met with the four prime ministers of the Visegrád Group comprised of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
During that meeting, Orban vowed to protect the Jewish community in Hungary from all expressions of anti-Semitism and expressed his sorrow regarding Hungary’s actions during the Holocaust.
While most European leaders who come to Israel also visit the Palestinian Authority (PA), Orban has chosen not to do so, in a move which is viewed as a diplomatic humiliation to PA head Mahmoud Abbas and a gesture towards Israel.
Orban’s deputy will visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem but not Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital.
Hungary has previously stood by Israel and has fought off European Union pressure to condemn the Jewish statel. At the end of 2017, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini promoted a resolution to condemn President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Orban ordered his foreign minister to oppose the resolution, which was ultimately shot down.