{"id":582310,"date":"2026-08-12T09:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/582310\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T09:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:36:08","slug":"israel-venezuela-renew-consular-relations-after-17-years-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/582310\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel, Venezuela renew consular relations after 17 years – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Aug. 12, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

Israel and Venezuela agreed on Tuesday to renew consular relations and establish a coordination mechanism to provide services to citizens of both countries, the two governments jointly announced.<\/p>\n

The agreement, reached following talks between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar and his Venezuelan counterpart F\u00e9lix Plasencia Gonz\u00e1lez, creates an official channel of coordination between Jerusalem and Caracas, which have not maintained diplomatic relations since 2009.<\/p>\n

The two countries also agreed to continue technical cooperation tied to emergency response and reconstruction following Venezuela\u2019s June earthquakes. An Israeli humanitarian delegation<\/a> led by the Foreign Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command assisted Venezuelan authorities for several weeks after the disaster. <\/p>\n

The Israeli Foreign Ministry, IDF Home Front Command and Israeli National Emergency Management Authority sent more than 50 professionals to assist local authorities, and Venezuelan leaders requested that the mission be extended.<\/p>\n

At one point, 32 Israeli specialists were operating in La Guaira, near Caracas, helping authorities shift from immediate emergency response to long-term rehabilitation. Israeli personnel aided damage assessments, recovery planning and decision-making after hundreds of coastal buildings were destroyed.<\/p>\n

The Israeli deployment was the Home Front Command\u2019s longest humanitarian assistance mission to date.<\/p>\n

The joint statement also highlighted Venezuela\u2019s Jewish community<\/a> as a bridge of \u201chistoric friendship\u201d between the two countries.<\/p>\n

A top rabbi in Venezuela on Sunday asked the country\u2019s president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, to restore diplomatic relations with Israel, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Isaac Cohen, chief rabbi of the Israelite Association of Venezuela (AIV), delivered a letter addressed to Rodr\u00edguez during a meeting with Plasencia at the ministry\u2019s headquarters in Caracas, according to a ministry statement.<\/p>\n

The meeting was to \u201caddress the needs of the Jewish community in our country,\u201d said Plasencia, according to the ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cVenezuela has historically welcomed, with open arms, a large Jewish community whose contributions have added, and continue to add, to the well-being and development of our nation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Plasencia also reiterated the Venezuelan government\u2019s gratitude for assistance Israel provided following two earthquakes that struck the country on June 24.<\/p>\n

Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Israel in January 2009 under then-President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who cited Israel\u2019s military campaign that year against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Relations between Venezuela and Israel deteriorated under Ch\u00e1vez, who died in 2013, and did not improve under his successor, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. Both developed close ties with Iran, repeatedly denounced Israel and faced accusations of encouraging antisemitism.<\/p>\n

For years under Ch\u00e1vez, Venezuelan Jews experienced repeated police raids on communal institutions.<\/p>\n

The Jewish population of Venezuela declined significantly during the eras of Ch\u00e1vez and Maduro, who were also vociferously anti-American.<\/p>\n

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a military operation in which Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken from Caracas to the U.S. to face charges of conspiring to bring cocaine into the United States. They have denied the charges as they await trial. The new government, though led by figures from the Maduro regime, has taken a more pragmatic approach to its relations with the United States, including restoring diplomatic and consular relations with Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Aug. 12, 2026 \/ JNS) Israel and Venezuela agreed on Tuesday to renew consular relations and establish a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-582310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}