Mexican president officially welcomes new Palestinian minister

The credentials of Palestinian Ambassador Nadya R. H. Rasheed were officially given to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the National Palace in Mexico City. In a message of thanks, Rasheed shared a picture of the two of them together on the Palestinian embassy’s X account. He also praised Mexico’s position on Israel’s war in Gaza.

For her, meeting a leader who fights for human rights for everyone, no matter their religion or background, was an honor and a privilege. This is what the whole world should aim to do, she wrote.

Sheinbaum, who was the first Jewish woman and Jewish president of Mexico, has called for the establishment of a Palestinian state as a separate country. She spoke out against “the aggression being experienced by the Palestinian people” in October of last year.

The time she got the Palestinian papers was at the same time that Israel started attacking again in Gaza, killing at least 700 Palestinians, mostly children, in the last few days.

In June 2023, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made it public that Palestine was a country. The move changed the Palestinian mission in Mexico from a special delegation to a full embassy. This happened after years of tense political ties during which Mexico refused to recognize the Palestinian statehood officially.

In 1975, when Luis Echeverría Álvarez was president, he met with Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in Egypt. This meeting was the start of diplomatic ties between Mexico and Palestine.

In late 1995, Mexico made the Palestinian delegation a special delegation instead of just a presence. In 2013, a Palestinian delegate officially gave their credentials to the Mexican government for the first time.

To join South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide, Mexico filed a statement of intervention under Article 63 of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) rules in May 2024.

Brazil, Cuba, and Venezuela are some of the other Latin American countries that have said they back the case, though they haven’t officially asked to join yet.

Mexico has also backed the work of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It knows that UNRWA is critical for helping the nearly six million Palestinian refugees in West Asia.