Last Monday, for the second time in the space of a week, President Isaac Herzog accepted the credentials of new ambassadors.
After accepting the letters of credence of seven new ambassadors the previous week, Herzog accepted the credentials and letters of recall of their predecessors of four new ambassadors.
Herzog later met with a delegation of ambassadors to the UN from countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The ambassadors were brought to Israel by Danny Danon, Israel’s permanent representative at the UN, who had previously taken them to Poland to participate in March of the Living.
While in Poland, Danon also took them on a tour of the former Warsaw Ghetto and Kraków’s Jewish Quarter, including a visit to the legendary pharmacy of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, one of four non-Jewish pharmacies in the Kraków Ghetto area.
The Germans offered the four proprietors the opportunity to move their establishments to the Aryan side. Pankiewicz declined and kept supplying the Jews with medications, often free of charge, when they did not have the money to pay. The premises also became a meeting point for the intellectuals of the ghetto and for members of the Jewish resistance movements.
In 1983, Pankiewicz was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations. The pharmacy was featured in Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List, and the director later donated $40,000 toward the preservation of the building, which has since been turned into a museum. The delegation also visited Schindler’s factory, through which Jewish workers were saved from being deported to the death camps.
On Sunday, the ambassadors participated in the inaugural JNS conference and later met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who briefed them on Israel’s battle in Gaza, the struggle for support in the international arena, and the efforts to bring home the hostages.
Monday’s presentation ceremonies differed greatly from the norm.
Because of Herzog’s heavy schedule that included meeting the 120 outstanding soldiers to whom he subsequently made presentations on Independence Day, meeting with different groups of bereaved parents ahead of Remembrance Day, plus a host of other meetings, it was impossible to give the usual amount of time to each individual ambassador.
It wasn’t just the time element that changed; it was the whole nature of the event.
As a rule, the new ambassadors assemble at the King David Hotel and are individually escorted to and from the President’s Residence by Gil Haskel, the chief of State Protocol. Once they get into the grounds, an IDF or police band strikes up with the national anthem of the ambassador’s country.
Haskel then leads the ambassador into the main hall of the building and, while standing alongside the new envoy, introduces him or her to the president. Letters of credence and recall are then presented, and the president introduces the ambassador to members of his senior staff. Afterward, the ambassador introduces the president to members of his or her entourage.
Then, they all go into a smaller reception hall for a photo opportunity and a 10-20 minute chit-chat, after which the ambassador signs the guest book and is escorted back to the King David by Haskel, who returns with the next ambassador in line based on the chronological order in which they arrived in the country.
■ THIS TIME, he brought all the ambassadors and their entourages together in one fell swoop, and they crowded into the waiting room, which is a converted coatroom. A coatroom, per se, no longer exists. At the start of the ceremonies, each ambassador and entourage separately entered the small reception room.
There was no sitting; everyone remained standing. There were no introductions other than Haskel’s introduction of the ambassador, and he did not stand at the ambassador’s side but at the far end of the room. All four ambassadors are non-resident envoys, and those who are accredited to the United Nations or the United States returned later with the UN delegation.
Cambodia’s Sok Chea is based in Turkey. He came wearing his country’s national costume. He and Herzog discussed the possibility of Herzog paying a state visit to Cambodia and the need to establish better economic relations.
Herzog meeting with ambassadors from islands
Fiji’s Filipo Tarakinikini also came in national dress and was told by Herzog that Israel is very appreciative of Fiji’s support in the peacekeeping forces and international forums. Herzog was also pleased with the ratification by the Fijian government of the proposal to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
The matter was initially raised in a conversation between Herzog and Fiji”s former president, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere, during the latter’s state visit to Israel in July 2023.
It was raised again in 2024 with a Fijian delegation charged with searching for suitable embassy premises and yet again by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in February when he met Fijian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka at the Munich Conference.
Tarakinikini has a distinguished military record, having served several times with Fijian peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and the Sinai, beginning in 1981. While working in a civilian capacity for the UN, he and his family lived in Jerusalem. He is very happy to be coming back, he said, and anticipates that the embassy will open in September, following the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile, Fiji has a consulate in Tel Aviv.
Micronesian Ambassador Jackson Soram came wearing a garland of yellow flowers. It’s uncertain whether this is a symbol of his country or whether it was in sympathy with the hostages in Gaza and their families in Israel. Soram is also his country’s ambassador to the United States.
Micronesia, small though it is, has been a loyal friend to Israel, a factor for which Herzog voiced deep appreciation. Soram said it was a great privilege to be appointed ambassador to Israel and invited Herzog to visit Micronesia. Herzog commented that Micronesia is a very small country, to which Soram retorted, “But we have a very big sea.”
While waiting for Nauru’s ambassador, Lara Erab Daniel, Herzog recorded an Independence Day message to Diaspora Jewry and called on all people of humanity to unite and demand the immediate release of the hostages.
He then thanked Nauru’s ambassador for being supportive and told her that he wished that Nauru had an ambassador permanently in Israel.
■ SOME OF the UN ambassadors had previously been on a UN ambassadors’ trip to Israel, but without going to Poland first. Some had also served in Israel in various capacities, such as Slovakia’s Peter Hulenyi, who is Jewish and a former ambassador of Slovakia to Israel.
Hulenyi, whose grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, was perhaps more emotionally moved than his colleagues by the March of the Living and the places visited by the delegation. He thought it was particularly poignant to come from the scenes of destruction in Poland to Kfar Aza in Israel.
While touring the South with the delegation, one of his memorable experiences was hearing from a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, whose son is now serving with the IDF in Gaza. The veteran never believed he would live to see his offspring fighting in an existential war, just as he had.
During question time at the meeting with Herzog, Hulenyi, while commending how well-planned and organized the tour had been, said that in various meetings that had been arranged for the delegation, there had been a sense of antipathy toward the UN.
Herzog responded that UN institutions are vital for humanity, but Israel has noticed that racism has crept into the UN, and it cannot remain silent in the face of racism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israel resolutions.
“What do you do when people say you have no right to defend yourself?” the president asked.
Herzog cited the World Health Organization as a UN institution with which Israel has no quarrel.
Each of the ambassadors introduced themselves and expressed how much they had wanted to come to Israel, how impressed they were, and how important it was for them to see things for themselves. One stressed that there was so much disinformation that they had to come to Israel and hear the Israeli side of the story.
In his address to the ambassadors, Herzog said that although the region has changed dramatically, Israel, together with its allies, must remain strong and work together in striving for peace.
Relating to a question about the polarization of Israeli society, Herzog conceded that there has been a major political upheaval and that Israel has a diversified society.
“My aim is to keep it intact,” he said, adding: “Ignore your personal judgment approach, and you will discover that you are not far away from each other. We must not allow ourselves to drift into hatred.”
As for back-channel diplomacy, about which he was also asked, his reply was affirmative but with the corollary that “we have to be quiet.”
After living relatively peacefully alongside Gaza, “October 7 was a wake-up call, so we have to be cautious,” he said. Israel is willing to give Syria and Lebanon a chance but must do so with caution, the president added.
“We are yearning for peace with them and all other countries in the region.”
Diplomats also attended Remembrance Day and Independence Day ceremonies and will be present at Victory in Europe Day ceremonies as well as at the New York conference of The Jerusalem Post on May 19.