Israel–Peru Relations

Relations encompass formal diplomacy, technical assistance, trade, technology, defense-industry cooperation, and positions in international forums. Peru recognized Israel on February 9, 1949.[3] The countries maintain embassies, and Peru was among the Latin American states with an embassy in Israel in 2019.[7]

Bilateral cooperation has included agreements or programs involving agriculture, plant protection, rural development, science and technology, education and culture, tourism, water management, and trade promotion.[4]

On June 27, 1945, Peruvian Senate president José Gálvez Barrenechea led the founding of the Comité Peruano Pro Palestina Hebrea, which worked to build support among Peruvian intellectuals, journalists, politicians, and the wider public for the establishment of a Jewish state.[1] Prominent Jewish activists in the campaign included Marcos Roitman, Marcos Perelman, Walter Neisser, and Isaac Wecselman.[1] Peru voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947. The resolution recommended Arab and Jewish states in Mandatory Palestine and an international regime for Jerusalem; the recorded tally was 33 in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions.[2][8]

Peru recognized Israel on February 9, 1949.[3] Marcos Roitman was nominated honorary consul of Israel in Peru in 1951 and inaugurated the Israeli consulate in 1953.[1] Sources differ slightly on the formal diplomatic chronology: the Jewish Virtual Library states that relations were raised to legation level in 1956 and embassy level in 1958, while the current Israeli Embassy chronology says diplomatic relations were formalized in 1957 and that Israel opened its Lima embassy in 1958.[1][4] Tuvia Arazi was Israel's first ambassador in Peru.[1]

A National Library of Israel catalog record dates a photograph titled “Chief of Staff of the Peru army arriving in Israel for an official visit” to 1970, documenting official military contact between the countries.[9] A published directory also listed an Israeli embassy in Lima in 1997.[10]

Israel and Peru have concluded agreements across agriculture, plant protection, rural development, science and technology, education and culture, tourism, and trade promotion.[4] Named arrangements include an agricultural agreement between the countries' ministries, a plant-protection accord between Israel's Plant Protection and Inspection Services and Peru's National Agricultural Health Service, and a trade-promotion agreement between Prompex and the Israel Export Institute.[4]

A visa-waiver agreement was signed on September 15, 2008, and entered into force on July 4, 2009.[4] A defense-industrial cooperation memorandum was signed in July 2008 and ratified by Peru in August 2021.[4] In 2012, Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Rafael Barak and Peruvian Foreign Affairs Vice Minister José Beraún Araníbar signed a memorandum on technical cooperation and water-resource management between Peru's National Water Authority and Israel's development-cooperation agency, MASHAV.[4]

Published accounts conflict over the status of a bilateral free-trade agreement. The World Jewish Congress states that Peru and Israel signed such an agreement in 1998.[11] By contrast, a 2016 report said that the countries had signed a declaration of interest in a Peru–Israel free-trade agreement but did not report that negotiations had produced a completed agreement.[12]

Peru was one of the four founding states of the Pacific Alliance, together with Chile, Mexico, and Colombia. The bloc was established to facilitate trade and economic development.[7] Israel became an observer state on February 10, 2014, providing a regional framework for economic engagement with Peru and the other members.[7] Israel exports around $900 million in goods annually to the Alliance as a whole, although the cited account does not provide a Peru-specific figure.[6]

Israel opened an official trade office in Lima in August 2016.[13] Peruvian Production Minister Bruno Giuffra subsequently met Israeli Ambassador Ehud Eitam and business attaché Ariela Rada to discuss partnerships with Israeli companies, including opportunities involving Peruvian startups and technology businesses.[12]

An Israel Export Institute country report lists $57 million in Israeli exports to Peru and $15 million in imports, for total goods trade of $72 million. Plastics accounted for $25 million and machinery and mechanical equipment for $14 million of Israeli exports, while oil seeds accounted for $4.3 million and cereals for $3 million of imports. The figures exclude diamonds, and the report does not clearly identify their reference year.[14]

In June 2018, Israeli company Gilat Satellite Networks received a $153.6 million contract from Peru's Telecommunications Investment Fund for infrastructure projects in the Amazonas and Ica regions. The satellite networks were intended to support schools, hospitals, police, and families.[6]

Earlier commercial activity was also substantial. In 2005, 165 Israeli companies were reported to be operating in Peru, 21 percent more than in 2003, while Israeli industrial exports to Peru rose 40 percent to $10.8 million in the first half of 2005 compared with the corresponding period in 2004.[15] That year a delegation of 23 Israeli businesspeople visited Peru as guests of President Alejandro Toledo. The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute estimated that the visit could generate $5 million in deals over the following two to three years, particularly in agricultural equipment, irrigation, and greenhouses.[15]

Israel's international development-cooperation agency, MASHAV, was established in 1958 as an arm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has been a central vehicle for engagement with Peru.[16] An embassy account reported in March 2011 that more than 3,500 Peruvian professionals had participated in MASHAV scholarship programs in Israel, studying rural development, agriculture, water-resource development, education, medicine, and public safety. A later embassy publication reported more than 5,000 Peruvian fellows trained by Israeli experts in Israel and Peru.[16]

A separate regional activity table lists 67 Peruvian participants in Israel: 7 in agriculture, 40 in education, 8 in regional planning, 8 in community development, 2 in small and medium enterprises, and 2 in communications. It separately records 3 on-the-spot course participants, 1 short-term consultancy in medicine and public health, and a total of 213 participants, without explaining the reporting period or how the categories relate to that total.[17]

Israel also provided humanitarian assistance to Peru following three earthquakes over roughly two decades, although the cited source does not identify the events, dates, or forms of aid.[11]

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala visited Israel in February 2014 with Foreign Minister Eda Rivas, Economy Minister Luis Miguel Castilla, and Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Milton von Hesse.[4] The visit formed part of a regional trip that also included Qatar and the Palestinian Authority, and Humala was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[18] Peru maintained an embassy in Israel as of 2019.[7]

President Alejandro Toledo, who served from 2001 to 2006, was described as a friend of Israel and a valued participant in conferences hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres.[19] His relationship with Israel reportedly cooled after he attempted to visit and was advised not to come because there was no assurance that he would receive an entry visa. Toledo said he believed Netanyahu had not received full information when the decision was made.[19]

A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs profile identifies Mark Sofer, who joined the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 1981, as having held a diplomatic position in Peru among assignments in Norway and New York. The profile does not give dates for his Peru posting or identify specific bilateral initiatives from it.[20]

Peru's UN voting record on Israel-related resolutions has varied across decades. In four 2009 UN General Assembly votes concerning Palestinian rights, Peru voted against Israel twice and abstained twice. The cited analysis characterized this pattern as comparatively favorable to Israel among Latin American governments. It records the same division of two votes against and two abstentions in 2010.[7]

In January 2011, Foreign Minister José Antonio García Belaúnde announced Peru's recognition of a Palestinian state and said Peru had maintained since 1947 that two states should be established: “an Israeli state with secure borders alongside a Palestinian state.”[21] The announcement described the Palestinian state as “free and independent” and said notice had been conveyed to the Palestinian ambassador in Lima.[21]

Following Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Peru condemned Hamas. The ADL subsequently assessed Peru's responses as “more neutral and lukewarm” and said the country avoided strong pro-Israel positions as the war continued.[5]

The relationship encountered turbulence during the 1970s and 1980s amid wider political changes in Latin America. Peru experienced left-wing military rule from 1968 to 1980, a period that coincided with deteriorating Israeli–Latin American relations.[22] By the 1980s, an Encyclopedia.com account placed Peru among Latin American governments that routinely supported anti-Israeli resolutions, although it did not provide a resolution-by-resolution Peruvian voting record.[22]

Israeli technical assistance in hydrogeology and agricultural development, including the training of Latin American professionals in Israel, generated goodwill for Jewish communities in countries including Peru. Judith Laikin Elkin nevertheless concluded that this goodwill was insufficient to stem rising anti-Israel sentiment in the region.[23]

Elkin reported that after a Palestine Liberation Organization office opened in Lima, Peru was “flooded with antisemitic literature,” and Lima's main synagogue was bombed in December 1982.[23] She also described a Peruvian official warning Jewish community leaders that if Israel did not sell Peru the same Kfir fighter aircraft it had sold Ecuador, the government could not be held responsible for an enraged public reaction. Her account does not state that Peru subsequently acquired the aircraft.[23]

During Operation Protective Edge, which lasted from July 8 to August 26, 2014, Peru was among five Latin American countries that recalled their ambassadors from Israel for consultations.[7] Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor called the decision “encouragement for Hamas” and argued that the countries should instead support efforts toward a ceasefire and the demilitarization of Gaza.[24] The cited sources do not provide Peru-specific details about the length of the recall or the ambassador's return.

A 2019 report described competing allegations in a Peruvian corruption investigation involving former president Toledo and Israeli businessman Josef Maiman. Maiman had agreed to cooperate with Peruvian authorities and testified against Toledo at the Peruvian embassy in Tel Aviv. Toledo denied Maiman's allegations and accused him of exploiting Toledo's presidential standing for private business purposes.[19]

The report stated that Israel had no extradition treaty with Peru, although an ad hoc arrangement had previously enabled Peruvian authorities to extradite former Israeli judge Dan Cohen, who was wanted in Israel on corruption accusations. Toledo's lawyers separately alleged that the manner in which Peruvian prosecutors obtained Maiman's testimony at the embassy violated consular agreements and Toledo's rights on Israeli territory. These were contested allegations rather than judicial determinations.[19]