TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan envoy to Israel Li Ya-ping (李雅萍) on Thursday (Jan. 18) presented the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy to Israeli scholar Meron Medzini on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for his contributions to deepening Taiwan-Israel relations and Taiwan studies.

At the award ceremony at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Li thanked Professor Medzini for publishing the book “Taiwan: History, Politics, and Society" in 2020. The book, written in Hebrew, has become a textbook in the East Asian departments of various colleges and universities in Israel, helping to enhance the knowledge and understanding of Taiwan among Israeli academics and students, CNA reported.

Medzini visited Taiwan in 2019 to gather information for the book. During this time, he was interviewed by Taiwanese media and talked about the development of Taiwan-Israel relations.

The professor has been an advocate of Taiwan's democracy and freedom in the Israeli media for a long time, per CNA.

Medzini said he noticed many similarities between Taiwan and Israel. Both have powerful enemies, strong militaries, lack of natural resources, and close ties with the U.S., he said.

Medzini said he was very proud of Taiwan's impressive democratic and economic achievements. He said that in the future, he would continue to let more Israelis know about Taiwan through media, academia, and public education.

Taiwan and Israel mutually established representative offices in 1993. Since then, the two countries have engaged in many bilateral cultural, educational, and city exchanges.