Published On 10 Sep 202610 Sep 2026<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have rallied in Slovenia\u2019s capital, Ljubljana, in protest against the opening of Israel\u2019s first embassy in the European Union country.<\/p>\n
The protest on Wednesday came as Slovenia\u2019s nationalist prime minister, Janez Jansa, pushed through a diplomatic reset with Israel, a sharp reversal from his predecessor, Robert Golob, whose government had described the Israeli war on Gaza as a \u201cgenocide\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Jansa took office in July.<\/p>\n
In Ljubljana, thousands marched past the hotel where the embassy\u2019s inauguration was taking place, carrying banners reading \u201cWe stand together for peace and Palestine\u201d and \u201cGenocide is not self-defence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Urska Breznik, a 48-year-old art historian, called the Jansa administration a \u201ccollaboration\u201d government. Another protester, Melina Sahernik, told the AFP news agency, \u201cThis makes Slovenia look very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
A poll conducted by the daily newspaper Delo in June suggested that 56 percent of Slovenians opposed closer ties with Israel, while 14 percent supported them.<\/p>\n
Andraz Zorko, a Slovenian political analyst, told The Associated Press news agency that the government\u2019s policy shift does not align with what he believes is the prevailing public opinion in the nation of some 2 million people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of Slovenian public is either against Israel or in some kind of neutral position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The liberal Freedom Movement, led by former Prime Minister Golob, joined the Left party on Wednesday to submit a proposal to parliament to impeach Jansa, primarily over a foreign policy they said serves Israel\u2019s interests exclusively.<\/p>\n
The party also sought to remove Foreign Minister Tone Kajzer, and described the embassy opening as \u201ca return of the favour\u201d for Israel\u2019s alleged support of Jansa during the March election.<\/p>\n
Under Golob, Slovenia had recognised a Palestinian state and imposed an arms embargo on Israel, as well as a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and the entry of top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Upon taking office, Jansa immediately removed the Palestinian flag from the Slovenian government building where it was placed alongside the Slovenian, EU and Ukrainian flags. His government soon scrapped all measures against Israel.<\/p>\n
At the embassy\u2019s inauguration, Foreign Minister Kajzer said the event should \u201cmark the beginning of a period of greater dialogue, stronger cooperation and, above all, more tangible results for the benefit of our people\u201d, according to a post by his ministry on X.<\/p>\n
Travelling to Slovenia for the event, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called it a \u201chistoric day\u201d at a news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a clear expression of Israel\u2019s commitment to our friendship and to its future,\u201d Saar added, thanking the Slovenian government and \u200cJansa for their friendship towards Israel.<\/p>\n
The opening of the embassy comes a day after the United Kingdom banned trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and France and Canada announced they would take similar action.<\/p>\n
The move is seen as a symbolic expression of displeasure with Israel by some of its closest allies, and it offers a new sign of the Israeli government\u2019s growing isolation as a result of the genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n
Israel responded angrily and said it would close the UK consulate in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published On 10 Sep 202610 Sep 2026 Thousands of people have rallied in Slovenia\u2019s capital, Ljubljana, in protest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[63,42,1155,46,44,47,43,45,238,52,10496,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-611403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-europe","tag-headlines","tag-human-rights","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-occupied-west-bank","tag-politics","tag-protests","tag-slovenia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611403","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=611403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}