G7 Ambassadors Skip Nagasaki Memorial Over Israel Snub

Latest Developments

The U.S., UK, German, and Italian ambassadors to Japan will skip Nagasaki’s annual August 9 commemoration of the 1945 atomic bombing due to the city’s exclusion of Israel from the ceremony. These countries, as well as France, Canada, and the European Union, sent a letter to Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki on July 19, warning, “Should Israel be excluded, it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation in this event.”

Expert Analysis

“By excluding Israel to avoid protests and disruption, Nagasaki is rewarding the pro-Hamas crowd for threatening to derail public events. Barring the victim of threats, rather than the perpetrators, is pure cowardice.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

“It’s disturbing that the Jewish state that rose from the ashes of World War II should be excluded from this ceremony. The American and European ambassadors who have pulled out in response have set an important example that other countries should follow.”— Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Manager

Nagasaki Mayor Claims Israel Exclusion Is Not ‘Political’

Nagasaki has not invited Russia or its ally Belarus to the ceremony since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In a statement, the British Embassy in Tokyo said that the decision to exclude Israel “creates an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony.”

However, Suzuki said that “political reasons” were not the cause of the exclusion. “We want to conduct the ceremony smoothly in a calm and solemn atmosphere,” Suzuki said. Nagasaki withheld Israel’s invitation in June over “the risk of unexpected incidents occurring during the ceremony, given the critical humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and international opinion.” Anti-Israel activists protested Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen’s presence at the Hiroshima memorial ceremony on August 6.

Recent Japan-Israel Tensions

In April, Japan resumed funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN’s welfare agency devoted exclusively to what it classifies as Palestinian refugees. Japan is UNRWA’s sixth-biggest donor. Several countries had pulled funding for UNRWA after revelations that numerous UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’s October 7 massacres in southern Israel. Later in April, Israel summoned Japan’s ambassador to Israel after his country voted at the UN to support the creation of a Palestinian state outside negotiations with Israel.

Related Analysis

“Palestinian Statehood Bid Risks Triggering U.S. Defunding of UN,” FDD Flash Brief

“Now that UN admits employee involvement in Oct. 7, it’s time to end UNRWA,” by David May and Richard Goldberg

“Nine UNRWA Staff Dismissed for Possible Ties to October 7 Atrocities,” by David May and Richard Goldberg