Israel not invited to Japan’s Nagasaki peace ceremony

The Israeli ambassador to Japan will not be invited to Nagasaki’s annual peace ceremony, the city’s mayor said Wednesday, adding the decision was taken to avoid unexpected trouble and was not politically motivated.

The city in southern Japan last month invited dozens of countries and territories to the August 9 event on the anniversary of the US nuclear bombing in 1945.

Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters the decision was “not politically motivated” but based on a desire to "hold the ceremony in a peaceful and somber atmosphere.”

The city had been holding off inviting ambassador Gilad Cohen due to the “potential risk of contingencies” arising from “various developments worldwide around the present Middle East situation.”

Concerns over that risk still persist, Suzuki said, describing Cohen’s exclusion as a “very tough decision.”

Last month, Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an “immediate ceasefire.”

The ambassador, for his part, called Wednesday’s decision “regrettable” and said it “sends a wrong message to the world.”


AFP