section_path: Political positions/Israel and Palestine
section_name: Israel and Palestine
paragraph_text: Israel and Palestine
  
  In August 2023, Simion met with Israeli ambassador to Romania Reuven Azar and Israeli Likud politician Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council. At the meeting, Simion acknowledged and expressed regret about Romania's role in the Holocaust during World War II, promising to combat antisemitism and supported the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, emphasising what he described as "the historical right of the Jewish people to build and live in communities and cities in Judea and Samaria, the cradle of history of the Jewish people since the days of the Bible ".