Embassy of Israel, Manila

The embassy occupies floors 9–11 of the Avecshares Center in Taguig, Metro Manila. The embassy was planned and designed by architect Eitan Kimmel.[1] Its components include political and consular departments as well as economic and defense attachés.[1] An earlier address, listed by the World Jewish Congress, placed the embassy at the Philippines Saving Bank Building, 6813 Ayala Avenue, Room 538, Makati, with telephone number +63 2 892 5329 and fax number +63 2 819 0561, though those contact details are undated.[3]

The embassy provides consular services to Israeli citizens and residents in the Philippines and to foreign citizens wishing to travel to Israel.[1] In June 2023, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen inaugurated a new wing of the mission during an official visit to Manila.[4] A report on the visit also said that the embassy formally opened floors for its economic and defense offices.[5]

Israel and the Philippines established full diplomatic relations in 1957, and embassies opened in both Manila and Tel Aviv in 1962.[6][2] A Jerusalem Center review of Moshe Yegar's history of Israeli diplomacy states that Israel already had diplomatic officials in the Philippines by the end of 1960, as part of a broader expansion of Israeli representation across Asia.[7]

The bilateral relationship rests on a foundation of historical goodwill. President Manuel Quezon's Open Door Policy provided refuge to more than 1,300 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.[2] In 1947, under President Manuel Roxas, the Philippines was the only Asian country to vote in favor of establishing Israel as a homeland for the Jews.[2] These episodes remain central to the embassy's account of bilateral ties.

On February 16, 1988, an explosive device was detonated outside the building housing the embassy in Manila; no injuries were reported.[8]

In September 2018, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte traveled to Israel—the first visit to Israel by a sitting Philippine president since diplomatic ties were established. Following the visit, he signed and ratified two bilateral agreements concerning nursing and hotels.[2] Diplomatic momentum continued in June 2023, when Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Manila, becoming the first Israeli foreign minister to do so since Abba Eban in 1967, whose visit had followed Golda Meir's in 1962.[9] Cohen met President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo to discuss bilateral ties, opportunities associated with the Abraham Accords, and shorter flight routes between Israel and East Asia.[9] Cohen and Manalo also signed a memorandum of understanding on environmental protection.[5]

The embassy has been active in humanitarian response, educational outreach, and economic promotion. Following Typhoon Yolanda, a 148-member Israeli delegation deployed to the Philippines to provide relief goods, assist with search-and-rescue operations and reconstruction, and help restore water supplies.[2] The delegation's field hospital treated more than 2,800 victims, performed surgeries, and assisted with childbirths.[2]

In the educational sphere, the embassy has sponsored learning resource centers at public schools in Metro Manila. A Jerusalem Learning Resource Center was unveiled at Bagong Tanyag Elementary School in 2023, and the embassy also sponsored a Be'eri Learning Resource Center in San Juan City.[10] In July 2024, Ambassador Ilan Fluss and embassy staff participated in the Philippine Department of Education's Brigada Eskwela program at Malaya Elementary School in Quezon City, helping prepare a learning resource center named Ofakim after an Israeli community.[10] At the San Juan inauguration, attended by Mayor Francis Zamora, children performed for the ambassador, and Fluss and Zamora read the story of David and Goliath in English and Filipino.[11]

By late 2024, the embassy had hosted an Israeli innovation and technology week to encourage Philippine investment in Israeli startups and had facilitated four Israeli business delegations to the Philippines in agriculture, water, cybersecurity, and emergency preparedness.[11] The embassy was also working to persuade Philippine Airlines to launch a direct flight to Israel; the airline had previously received Saudi permission to fly over its territory, but the war halted the plan.[11]

The embassy co-organized an Israel–Philippines business forum with major Filipino and Israeli companies during Cohen's 2023 visit and arranged his meeting with representatives of the Philippines' small Jewish community.[9] In July 2024, it handled consular coordination concerning the disappearance of Israeli national Isaac Cohen and his partner in the Philippines. Israel's consul worked with local authorities while the Foreign Ministry's department for Israelis abroad remained in contact with the family.[12]

The embassy has made Holocaust remembrance and the history of Philippine–Jewish solidarity a recurring focus of its public diplomacy. On January 28, 2025, the Embassy of Israel and the City Government of Quezon City jointly commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Israel-Philippines Friendship Marker in Quezon City.[13] The ceremony honored the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and reflected on the legacy of President Manuel L. Quezon, who opened the Philippines to Jewish refugees amid rising antisemitism and the threat of war.[13]

Sources differ slightly on the precise year diplomatic relations were formalized. The embassy's bilateral-relations page and the Jewish Virtual Library's history page give 1957 as the year full diplomatic relations were established, with embassies opening in 1962.[6][2] The Jewish Virtual Library's separate diplomatic-missions table associates the date "8/1957" with its Manila embassy listing, though the table does not explain whether the date refers to the mission's opening or the establishment of relations.[14]

A Jerusalem Post opinion article gives 1958 as the year full diplomatic relations were realized and describes 2023 as the relationship's 65th anniversary, differing from the embassy's account.[15] The embassy page and the Jewish Virtual Library history page both state that the embassies opened in 1962.[6][2] The Jerusalem Post article also gives 1962 as the opening year.[15]