Argentine President Javier Milei has been selected as the first foreign leader to light a torch at Israel’s official Independence Day event in Jerusalem later this month, in recognition of his deep friendship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
“In these very complex years we are in, the State of Israel has found in Buenos Aires a true friend and a dedicated partner on the path,” Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev, who is charged with the Independence Day ceremony, said on Thursday in announcing the decision. “President Javier Milei is one of the most prominent leaders of the free world and one of Israel’s closest friends, a true friend and a true Zionist, a model of partnership, loyalty and appreciation for the Jewish people and one of the greatest friends of the Jewish people.”
She added that his selection to be one of 12 torch lighters at the state event on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl “expresses the immense gratitude that all Israeli citizens feel for his leadership and our immense pride in the warm and close relationship between Israel and Argentina.”
The ceremony, which marks the closure of Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism commemorations, and the opening of Independence Day celebrations, will be held on the evening of April 21.
The Argentine leader has broken with decades of foreign policy by positioning himself with the United States and Israel, emerging as one of the most vocal supporters of the Jewish state around the globe.
Since taking office two and a half years ago, Milei has designated Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terrorist groups and called out Tehran’s terrorism, vowing to try in absentia Iranian suspects in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.
Last year, Milei declared two days of national mourning for the Bibas children—Ariel, 4, and 9-month-old Kfir—whom Palestinian terrorists murdered in captivity in Gaza, along with their mother, 32-year-old Shiri Bibas. The family, which held Israeli, Argentine and German citizenship, had become symbols of the plight of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas and other terrorist groups when they invaded the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, and murdered some 1,200 people, mainly civilians. He also renamed a Buenos Aires street from Palestine to the Bibas Family.
Milei has also pledged to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem this year. Argentine Ambassador to Israel Shimon Axel Wahnish called the decision “a historic and symbolic act,” and “an unprecedented gesture and bond,” in a post on X.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who will be awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Special Contribution to the State of Israel and the Jewish people, is also invited to the event, although it is unclear whether he will be able to attend.
The theme of Israel’s 78th Independence Day will be “Strength and Renewal,” and the 12 torches will be lit by people whose actions strengthen national resilience.
