Papua New Guinea opens Jerusalem embassy as Christian act

Papua New Guinea became the fifth country to open a Jerusalem embassy on Tuesday, as Israel pushed to shore up support for its capital among global opposition to such moves.

“We subscribe fully to the teachings of the Bible,” Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said in a brief and emotional speech in Jerusalem to mark the embassy’s opening.

“You have been the great custodian of the moral values that God passed for humanity,” he said.

“In that acknowledgment to the fullest, we have decided consciously to walk the narrow path,” Marape said. He acknowledged that many countries have chosen to shun Jerusalem as a location for their embassies.

“We made the conscience choice. This has been the universal capital of the nation and the people of Israel. 

“For us to call ourselves Christian, paying respect to God would not be complete without recognizing that Jerusalem is the universal capital of the people and the nation of Israel,” Marape said.

To date, only four other counters have opened embassies in Jerusalem: the United States, Honduras, Guatemala and Kosovo. 

Most countries have placed their embassies in the Tel Aviv area, refuging to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. They believe that such a step should only happen within the context of a two-state resolution to the conflict in which east Jerusalem would be the capital of a Palestinian state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who attended the small ceremony which was closed to the media, but broadcast on YouTube, said Jerusalem had been the capital of the Jewish people for the last 3,000 years.

Prior to the embassy opening, Marape was quoted in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier newspaper as saying that Israel would pay for the embassy, located in a high-rise opposite Jerusalem's biggest mall, 

Wassel Abu Youssef, an official with the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation, said Israel was "looking for any country - even if that country can only be seen under a microscope - so it can claim there are countries opening embassies in Jerusalem."

A nation of agriculture

Papua New Guinea, which occupies the eastern half of the West Pacific Island of New Guinea, has an economy based on agriculture and mining. Its bilateral trade with Israel is worth just $1 million a year, according to Israeli authorities.

Netanyahu said the new embassy would make it easier to develop agriculture, health, water and technology projects. "This will not only enable us to cherish the past but also seize the future," he said at the ceremony.

Reuters contributed to this report.