Argentine President Javier Milei is greeted in Tel Aviv by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Photo: Reuters/Latin America News Agency

Argentina’s newly-elected President Javier Milei arrived in Israel on Tuesday for a three-day visit, bringing with him a pledge to move his country’s embassy in the Jewish state from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem alongside a commitment to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

A populist outsider who won a surprise victory in Argentina’s Nov. 2023 presidential election, Milei has loudly advertised his support for Israel and his personal enthusiasm for the Jewish faith. Following his poll triumph, Milei appointed his Jewish spiritual adviser, Rabbi Axel Wahnish, as Argentina’s Ambassador in Tel Aviv.

Milei flew to Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv from Rome, where he met with Pope Francis. On arrival in Israel, he was greeted on the tarmac by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, ahead of a schedule that includes meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, as well as visits to the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Negev, where nearly 25 percent of residents were either murdered or kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 pogrom carried out by Hamas terrorists.

“You are a person of values ​​who is committed only to the truth, and it is no wonder that you chose to come to Israel right away to support us in the just struggle for the defense of the Jewish people against the murderers of Hamas,” Katz told Milei.

Speaking on his flight from Rome to the Argentine news outlet Infobae, Milei said that he was fulfilling his promise to visit Israel on his first international trip since assuming office. He added that he was traveling to Israel to “express my support against the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas” and to deepen commercial ties between the two countries.

Officials traveling with Milei confirmed that the Argentine Embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem without specifying a date. “It is a fact, as soon as the situation allows it, it will be done. There is the intention, but the date has not been set,” one adviser told the Clarín news outlet on Tuesday.

Milei is also pushing forward with plans to list Hamas on RePET — Argentina’s registry of organizations and person linked to acts of terrorism. As a deputy in the Argentine parliament during the former administration of President Alberto Fernández, Milei tried unsuccessfully to designate Hamas.

Milei’s unabashedly pro-Israel position has cast him as an outlier in Latin America, where several heads of state — including Lula  da Silva in Brazil, Gustavo Petro in Colombia, Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico and Gabriel Boric in Chile — have angrily condemned Israel for its military response to the Hamas atrocities.