 Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Maripay arrived in Israel yesterday for an official visit to open the island states new embassy in Jerusalem. Papua New Guinea has become the fifth country to open an embassy in Jerusalem. The US famously did so in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump. Less famously Honduras, Guatemala and Kosovo all also operate small embassies in the city. And other countries like Czechia have diplomatic missions here that aren't quite embassies. However, given that there are more than 190 member states in the UN, you might be wondering why only 5 countries, less than 3% of them, have embassies in Jerusalem. The answer in one word is 1967. In 1967 Israel brought East Jerusalem under its control. East Jerusalem is a part of Jerusalem to the east of an armistice line agreed between Israel and Jordan. The vast majority of the international community considered the move to have been illegal and thus refused to base their embassies to Israel and Jerusalem. Papua New Guinea is an island in the Pacific Ocean with about 10 million residents. Its Prime Minister and his wife both keep the Shabbat and have long been known to be staunch supporters of Israel. The only question remains now, which embassy will be number 6?