Why Israel and Palestine both love Mexico

Beyond its apparent neutrality, Mexico has a deep and bizarre relationship with the region.

Progressive influencers in the US are misled. A photo of Claudia Sheinbaum receiving the credentials of Palestine’s Ambassador to Mexico, Nadya Rasheed, made waves across social media, and particularly among US left-wing advocates. The image of Mexico’s first president of Jewish descent smiling with a representative of the State of Palestine seemed to symbolise what could be in the midst of what back on February 5th, 2025, was already a brutal conflict in Gaza.

The influencers were not quite right for various reasons: Firstly, Sheinbaum wasn’t suddenly recognising Palestine for the first time. The country has been accepted as a sovereign State by the Mexican government since 2013. More importantly though, an embrace of Palestine has not meant the absence of one for Israel.

Mexico seems to want to have it both ways. It seems to have achieved it.

“We did not expect that her religious descent would have an effect on her political line. However, the collaboration between countries is still fruitful and still going on. We’ve seen many worrisome things here in Latin America and Mexico is very far from that. The relation is strong and even friends and allies can have our differences,” said Dahlia Neumann, Head of Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of Israel in Mexico.

“Mexico is a leader. That’s how the international community sees it, as do we, the Palestinian people,” Nadya Rasheed, Ambassador of Palestine in Mexico, told The Mexico Political Economist.

It’s almost too good to be true.