Israel’s Ambassador to Uruguay was summoned on Saturday to the headquarters of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “in order to provide explanations on her comments” emphasizing that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and has been for 70 years.
Ambassador Nina Ben-Ami was told “to maintain government exchanges through the corresponding official channels,” according to the Aurora news website, which reported on the reprimand.
Ben-Ami had tweeted in Spanish via her personal account last week that she was “Surprised and disappointed to hear the foreign minister declaring that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. Capaz Salto is the capital of Uruguay? Israel has a capital, Jerusalem, for 70 years. The Knesset, the ministries, the residence of the prime minister and the president, the Supreme Court, are there,” she wrote.
Needless to say, Capaz Salto is not the capital of Uruguay; it’s Montevideo.
Uruguay, home to some 12,000 Jews out of a population of 3.4 million, was the first nation in South America to officially recognize the State of Israel. But the Uruguay Foreign Ministry responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announced recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and his decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, with “concern.”
Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa called Trump’s decision “unnecessary,” saying it put the “peace and peaceful coexistence talks in an area that is already in turmoil.”