Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to visit Canada in late May at the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He will be the first Israeli prime minister to visit Canada since then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin visited in 1994.
The Prime Minister will be accompanied by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein.
Harper and Netanyahu met in the United States in 2009. Harper has frequently spoken out in support of Israel. Since his election, Israel and Canada have strengthened their political, military and economic ties.
"It is a pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu to Canada,” Harper said in a statement this week. “Our countries have a close and enduring friendship which we are working to further strengthen.”
In March, the Canadian government publicly condemned the construction of housing in a Jewish neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. Harper urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume negotiations.