Argentina's new president to arrive in Israel as his first foreign visit

Argentina’s new president will travel this week to Israel as his first official foreign visit.

Alberto Fernández, who was sworn in as president last month, is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Tuesday to participate in the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem.

Argentina, home to the region's largest Jewish community, will be the only country from Latin America represented at such a high level at Thursday’s event.

Since 2002, Argentina is the only Latin American member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Argentina’s Jewish political umbrella DAIA called the president’s trip “very positive.”

The new governor of Buenos Aires Province, Axel Kicillof, who is Jewish, will travel with the president. The province is home to 3 out of 8 Argentines.

At: https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/argentinas-new-president-to-arrive-in-israel-as-his-first-foreign-visit

Argentine President Alberto Fernández and Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof flash victory signs during their decisive first-round win on August 11.

Fernández, the only Latin American leader invited to the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, seeks a closer relationship with Israel - whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, supported his right-wing opponent, Mauricio Macri, in last year's election.

Macri, the first Argentine president to lose re-election, had dissolved the prosecutor's office investigating the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing - an office Fernández reinstated within days of taking office.