Japan’s Nagasaki holds off inviting Israel to peace ceremony

The Israeli ambassador to Japan has not yet been invited to Nagasaki’s annual peace ceremony, said city officials who instead sent the embassy a letter calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

The city in southern Japan this week invited dozens of countries and territories to the August 9 event on the anniversary of the US nuclear attack in 1945 that killed 74,000 people.

But “as for Israel, the situation is changing day by day... so we have put sending an invitation letter on hold,” mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters on Monday.

Worries that protests could disrupt the memorial for atomic bomb victims are partly behind the decision, said Suzuki.

“Given the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, and public opinion in the international community, there are concerns about the risk of unexpected incidents during the ceremony,” which should be “safe and smooth.”

“As the Ukraine situation has not changed, we are not inviting Russia or Belarus” either, Suzuki added.

The Palestinian envoy has been invited to the ceremony in Nagasaki, local officials told AFP on Tuesday. Japanese media said that both sides are usually invited.

Nagasaki has instead sent a letter to the Israeli embassy in which “we call for an immediate ceasefire,” Suzuki said.

Its letter said that if city officials decide in the coming months that there is no problem in inviting Israel, “we will issue an invitation swiftly,” according to the mayor.

The Israeli embassy did not immediately issue a comment.



AFP