Diplomats stationed in Israel, representing 16 foreign countries, gathered at the Jerusalem Vineyard Winery overlooking the Old City on Wednesday, for an event and briefing organized by the Katz Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP), in celebration of Jerusalem Day.
JCAP is a Jerusalem-focused research and policy center dedicated to shaping the future of Jerusalem as Israel’s indivisible capital.
At the event, the center underscored its mission. It highlighted available opportunities, while urging envoys to encourage their countries to recognize the city as Israel’s united capital and relocate their embassies there.
According to JCAP, there are currently seven foreign embassies in Jerusalem, those of Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and the United States.
Several other countries have also relocated parts of their diplomatic missions or established satellite offices in the city.
The gradual shift began in 2018, when the United States relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital.
Chaim Silberstein, founder and chairman of JCAP, told JNS that a central pillar of the organization’s work has been to cultivate an atmosphere that encourages countries to recognize the city’s unification, while also working toward internationalizing Jerusalem Day.
“That is done through diplomacy and through advocacy via intelligent persuasion and that’s what we hope to do today,” he said.
Avi Zimmerman, JCAP’s director of U.S. relations, added that he hopes to reach those not yet entrenched in the city, letting them know that Jerusalem is open for business and offers a plethora of opportunities for meaningful, substantial partnerships.
He said that for nations that have already relocated their embassies, “JCAP plays an instrumental role in providing substantive support, ensuring they have much to report back to their home countries about the opportunities they have been introduced to through working with Jerusalem, Israel’s capital.”
‘Jerusalem enters into your soul’
Panama’s Jewish, religiously observant ambassador to Israel, Ezra Cohen, choked back tears as he addressed the group, sharing personal family stories about his family’s connection to the city.
He told how his great-grandfather was murdered in the city by an Arab mob in front of his grandfather’s eyes when he was just 13 years old, before the establishment of the state. His grandfather vowed he would dedicate his life to defending the Jewish people and helping to turn the dream of a state into reality.
His grandfather eventually became one of the founders of a transportation company, which later became the Egged bus company.
“For my family, Jerusalem was survival. Jerusalem was sacrifice. Jerusalem was identity ..., once Jerusalem enters into your soul, it never leaves,” he said.
Cohen’s father fought in the 1948-49 War of Independence and was captured by the Jordanians as a prisoner of war while defending the Old City of Jerusalem. He was released nine months later.
“And now, history does something extraordinary. The son of a prisoner of war defending Jerusalem returns to Jerusalem as the ambassador of Panama in Israel,” he said.
Cohen said that Panama understands that while many nations might hesitate, his country knows you don’t abandon Israel and the Jewish people.
He added, “Yom Yerushalayim [Jerusalem Day] is not only a celebration of military victory, it is a victory of memory over forgetting, of resilience over fear, of hope over darkness. I stand here carrying three generations with me.”
Earlier, Cohen told JNS that Panama was not yet prepared to move its embassy to Jerusalem, but he claimed it was the only Latin American country that “never has or will recognize the Palestinian Authority.”
Encouraging countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem, Ambassador Ran Ichay, JCAP’s head of research and Israel’s former envoy to Kazakhstan, drew on a personal anecdote.
He told the group that he oversaw the transfer of Israel’s embassy in Kazakhstan in 2008 from Almaty to Astana, after the country had decided a decade earlier to change its capital for a mix of strategic, geographic, and political reasons.
JCAP acknowledged that it might be a challenge for the diplomats to persuade their superiors to make the move to Jerusalem, but said, “I just wanted to give you evidence, it can be done.”
David Brownstein, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy, told JNS that he viewed the city of Jerusalem as special due to its eternal yet evolving nature.
He described the 2018 move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as an ongoing experience that, he said, is very much still in process.
Brownstein said the U.S. wants to see additional embassies come to Jerusalem “because this is the center of diplomatic and political power here, and the world should recognize that.” He added, “Today is an opportunity to celebrate what was, and also look forward to what will be.”
