Reuven Rivlin's visit to Czech Republic (1)

Relations between

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, and its predecessor state

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, have varied widely over time. Initially warm, Czechoslovakia-Israel relations deteriorated, and the two countries did not have diplomatic relations during most of the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. However, after the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

and

dissolution of Czechoslovakia The dissolution of Czechoslovakia ( cs, Rozdělení Československa, sk, Rozdelenie Česko-Slovenska) took effect on December 31, 1992, and was the self-determined split of the federal republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries o ...

the countries re-established contact, and the Czech Republic is now one of Israel's closest allies, frequently demonstrating strong support for Israel at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. In March 2021, the Czech Republic opened a diplomatic office in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

History

Israeli relations with Czechoslovakia

The founder of Czechoslovakia, President

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech and Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas. It may refer to: * Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), first President of Czechoslovakia * Tomáš Baťa (1876–1932), Czech footwear entrepreneur * Tomáš Berdych ( ...

, had close relations with Jews and the Zionist Movement. In 1920 he became the first statesman to visit Palestine's first Jewish

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

. Czechoslovakia was one of 33 countries to vote in favour of the

1947 UN partition resolution The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan as Re ...

recommending the establishment of a Jewish state, and was among the first countries to recognize the State of Israel, which it did on May 18, 1948, four days after Israel's declaration. Diplomatic relations between the countries were established on July 3, 1948, four months after the Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia supported the newly created Israeli state for several months with military aircraft and weapons. However the Communist government later ceased this support and within a few years diplomatic relations were broken. Following the 1989

, diplomatic relations were re-established between Israel and newly-democratic Czechoslovakia.

Israeli relations with the Czech Republic

After the

in 1993, diplomatic relations were established between Israel and the two successor states, the Czech Republic and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

In December 2008 the Czech Air Force wanted to train in desert conditions for the upcoming mission in Afghanistan, and Israel offered their desert areas for this purpose, to thank the Czechs for training Israeli pilots when the country was first established. The current Czech government is one of Israel's closest allies. After the

Gaza flotilla raid The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six civilian ships of the " Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine activists and no Israelis were killed on one ship dur ...

the

expressed its support for

President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for e ...

Přemysl Sobotka Přemysl Sobotka (born 18 May 1944 in Mladá Boleslav) is a Czech physician and politician who served as the President of the Senate from 2004 to 2010. Sobotka was a candidate in 2013 Czech presidential election, in January 2013. In the first ro ...

visited Israel on June 2, 2010 and addressed the Israeli

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

, describing the flotilla as a planned provocation designed to entrap Israel. Sobotka met with Knesset Speaker

Reuven Rivlin Reuven "Ruvi" Rivlin ( he, רְאוּבֵן "רוּבִי" רִיבְלִין ; born 9 September 1939) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who served as the tenth president of Israel between 2014 and 2021. He is a member of the Likud party. Riv ...

and expressed support for the classification of

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

as a terrorist organization. In a

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

vote on 29 November 2012, the Czech Republic was the only European country to vote with Israel against upgrading the status of Palestine to a "non-member observer state". During a visit to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in May 2012, Israeli

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

said that Israel had "no better friend in Europe than the Czech Republic". During a visit to Israel in November 2014, Czech Foreign Minister

Lubomír Zaorálek Lubomír Zaorálek (born 6 September 1956) is a Czech politician, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka from 2014 to 2017, and Minister of Culture under Prime Minister Andrej Babiš from 2019 to 2021. ...

claimed that Czech media and society viewed Israel as "a trusted friend, a vibrant democracy, and an economic and technological powerhouse", adding that the Czech Republic had one of the lowest levels of anti-Semitism in Europe.Reflections on Czech-Israeli Relations in Light of EU Policies
Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, IX (1), 87-91. In 2015, Israel Foreign Affairs Minister Moshe Arens described Czech-Israel relations as "excellent", and the best of all nations in the

. In December 2015 the Czech Parliament refused to implement European Union guidelines to label Israeli products originating from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Czech lawmakers described the rules as anti-Semitic, and discrimination against "the only democracy in the Middle East". Israel's ambassador Gary Koren thanked the parliament for its decision. In October 2016 Czech Parliament passed a motion condemning a UNESCO resolution on Palestine which omitted reference to the Jewish heritage of the

Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط � ...

and other historical sites in Jerusalem, with deputies accusing UNESCO of antisemitism and describing the resolution as "hateful" during the parliamentary discussion.

Ofir Akunis Ofir Akunis ( he, אוֹפִיר אָקוּנִיס, born 28 May 1973) is an Israeli politician. He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud and is the Minister of Science and Technology. He has previously held the posts of Mini ...

, Israeli Minister of Science, Technology and Space, thanked the Czech Parliament and the country, describing it as a "heroic act" and reaffirming the close relationship between the countries. In May 2017 the Chamber of Deputies passed a non-binding resolution condemning another UNESCO resolution critical of Israel, and calling on the Czech government to advocate recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The resolution also called for the Czech Republic to withhold its annual funding to UNESCO. On 22 October 2019, the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

passed a non-binding resolution "condemn ngall activities and statements by groups calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, its goods, services or citizens." The resolution was introduced by Jan Bartošek, leader of the Populars caucus in the chamber. On 11 March 2021, Czech Prime Minister

Andrej Babiš Andrej Babiš (; born 2 September 1954) is a Czech politician and businessman of Slovak descent who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. Babis previously served as the Minister of Finance and deputy Prime Minister ...

opened the Czech diplomatic office in Jerusalem, the second European Union country to do so, after Hungary. Israeli President

Isaac Herzog Isaac "Bougie" Herzog ( he, יצחק "בוז׳י" הרצוג, Yitskhak "Buzhi" Hertsog; born 22 September 1960) is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the 11th president of Israel since 2021. He is the first president to be born in ...

made a state visit to the Czech Republic in July 2022. At Prague Castle, President Herzog awarded the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor to Czech President Miloš Zeman, hailing his Czech counterpart’s “deep friendship with the Jewish People, his consistent support for Israel on the international stage, and his ’zero tolerance’ policy toward terrorism and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

.”

Country comparison

Diplomatic offices and co-operation

The Czech Republic has an embassy in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

and 3 honorary consulates (in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

and

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

). Israel has an embassy in

. Both countries are full members of the

Union for the Mediterranean The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM; french: Union pour la Méditerranée, ar, الإتحاد من أجل المتوسط ''Al-Ittiḥād min ajl al-Mutawasseṭ'') is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the M ...

References

External links

Czech embassy in Tel Aviv

Israeli embassy in Prague
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czech Republic-Israel relations

Bilateral relations of Israel