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Prime Minister praises Hungary for support of Israel

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Hungary yesterday, the first by a sitting Israeli Prime Minister. He met with Hungarian President Janos Ader and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Netanyahu and Orban attended an economic forum for Israeli and Hungarian companies, where they signed a cooperation agreement in innovation and technology.

Netanyahu thanked Hungary for supporting Israel in international fora and said: “You’ve done that time and again. We appreciate this stance, not only because it’s standing with Israel, but it’s also standing with the truth”

Prime Minister Orban has been accused of anti-Semitism after he called Hungary’s wartime leader and Hitler ally Miklos Horthy a “great statesman”, and launched a poster campaign targeting Jewish-American financeer George Soros which caused great concern among the Hungarian Jewish community.

Israel’s ambassador to Hungary asked for the campaign to be withdrawn but after complaints from the Hungarian Government, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a clarification that the Israeli ambassador’s statement was in no way intended to delegitimise criticism of George Soros.

Orban acknowledged on Tuesday Hungary’s “sin” in not protecting the country’s Jews during World War II and promised a “zero tolerance policy” toward anti-Semitism. “We are aware of the fact that we have quite a difficult chapter of history behind us… the Government of Hungary, in a previous period, committed a mistake, even committed a sin, when it did not protect the Jewish citizens of Hungary, I want to make it clear that it is our belief that every single Hungarian government has the obligation to protect and defend all of its citizens, regardless of their birth and origins.”

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who urged Netanyahu to cancel his visit unless Orban apologised for his previous comments, welcomed the statement, but repeated his outrage over Orban’s praise for Horthy.

Netanyahu is today due to hold individual working meetings with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and address the full Visegrad Group.