Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernandez announced Sunday during the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, his plans to immediately open a trade and cooperation office in Jerusalem, as an initial move towards relocating the diplomatic mission from Tel Aviv.
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“Today I have announced the first step, which is to open a trade office in Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Israel, and this will be an extension of our embassy in Tel Aviv,” Hernandez said in a statement issued by his government. In the long term, a decision that will be carried out once Israel opens an embassy in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.
The Central American president announced his decision back in December 2018. Once the proposed relocation happens, it would join the United States and Guatemala as the only three countries with full-fledged embassies located in the occupied city of Jerusalem, which is not recognized internationally as Israel’s capital.
During the 1967 war, Israel captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, which was under Jordanian control at the time, and proceeded to annex it, in violation of international law. Later in 1980, the Israeli Knesset proclaimed a change in the character and status of the city, stating that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel," and in this way formalizing its annexation.
In response, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 478, declaring the "basic law" on Jerusalem to be "null and void", highlighting that an occupying power does not have sovereignty in the territory it occupies.
After Donald Trump’s decision to “recognize” Jerusalem as Israel’s capital back in 2018, the U.N. General Assembly issued a resolution condemning the action. Yet Honduras was one of only eight countries that opposed it along with Guatemala, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Togo.
Other international leaders have expressed their intention to capitulate to Israel and U.S. interests such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and most recently, also during the AIPAC conference, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila.